s 

5d1 



^ AGRICULTURAL 
EDUCATION 



REPORT 

of a Deputation appointed by the Council 

of University College, Reading, to visit 

selected centres of agricultural 

education and research 

in Canada and in 

the United 

States. 



544785 




Ionian ^^ 



Reading 

Published by University College, 

1910. 

PRICE ONE SHILLING. 




b ^ 



(j!ass_ vj "4? ^ 
Book J^ 4 



SMITHSOX'IAK' DEPOSIT 



THE PROBLEM OF AGRICULTURAL 
EDUCATION IN AMERICA AND 
IN ENGLAND WITH SPECIAL 
REFERENCE TO A POLICY OF 
DEVELOPING THE WORK CARRIED 
ON IN HIGHER AGRICULTURAL 
AND HORTICULTURAL EDUCATION 
AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, 
READING, AND IN CONNEXION 
WITH THE COUNTIES WHICH 
CONTRIBUTE TO ITS SUPPORT. 



544785 



Report of a Deputation appointed by the Council 

of University College, Reading, to visit selected 

centres of agricultural education and research in 

Canada, and in the United States. 



Reading : 

Published by University College, 

19 lO. 

Price One Shilling. 



^K 



READING : 
THE PRESS OF E. POYNDER AND SON. 



CONTENTS. 






'^ PAGE 

•cs* Appointment, Purpose, and Composition of the Deputation 7 

c: Plan and Scope of Tour ... ... ... ... 8 

,** Acknowledgments ... ... ... ... 10 

Scheme of the Report ... ... ... ... 10 



Part I. Agriculture. 

A. Notes on Institutions visited in Canada and in the 

United States ... ... ... 12-51 

I. The Macdonald College, St. Anne de Bellevue ... 12 

General ... ... ... ... ... 12 

Buildings and Equipment ... ... ... 13 

The Farm... ... ... ... ... 13 

Courses of Instruction ... ... ... 14 

Summer Vacation ... ... ... ... 15 

Fees ... ... ... ... ... 15 

Staff ... ... ... ... ... 16 

Relations with Farmers ... ... ... 17 

II. The Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa ... ... 18 

III. The Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph ... 20 

General ... ... ... ... ... 20 

Finance ... ... ... ... ... 20 

Buildings and Equipment ... ... ... 22 

The Farm... ... ... ... ... 22 

Courses of Instruction ... ... ... 23 

Fees ... ... ... ... ... 2C 

Staff ... •... ... ... ... 25 

Conditions of Students' Entrance ... ... 25 

Number of Students ... ... ... 26 

Stock-Judging Competition ... ... ... 26 

Relations with Farmers ... ... ... 26 

IV. The Agricultural Policy of the Government of Ontario 29 

The Guelph College of Agriculture ... ... 29 

The Veterinary College ... ... ... 30 

Agricultural and Horticultural Societies... ... 30 

Live Stock Branch ... ... ... ... 30 

Dairy Branch ... ... ... ... 30 

Fruit Branch ... ... ... ... 31 

Colonisation Branch... ... ... ... 31 

Statistical and Publications Branch ... ... 31 

Institutes for (a) Farmers and (^) Women ... 31 



PAGE 

V. Cornell University (including the New York State 

College of Agriculture) ... ... ... 34 

The University ... ... ... ... 34 

The College of Agriculture ... ... ... 35 

Buildings and Equipment ... ... ... 36 

The Farm ... ... ... ... t^S 

Courses of Instruction ... ... ... 37 

Fees ... ... ... ... ... 38 

Staff ... .. 39 

Students and Statistics ... ... ... 40 

Relations with Farmers and the Public ... ... 40 

VI. Wisconsin University (including the College of 

Agriculture) ... ... ... ... 42 

The University ... ... ... ... 42 

The College of Agriculture ... ... ... 43 

The Farm ... ... ... ... 44 

Courses of Instruction ... ... ... 44 

Fees ... ... ... ... ... 47 

Staff ... ... ... ... ... 47 

Statistics of Students ... ... ... 48 

Conditions of Admission ... ... ... 48 

Relations with the Government ... ... 48 

Relations with Farmers and the Public ... ... 49 

The Experimental Association ... ... 50 

B. Observations upon Agricultural Education in England 

and in America ... ... ... 52-107 

Introductory ... ... ... ... 52 

Differences in the Conditions of Agricultural 

Education in England and in America ... 53 

Climate... ... ... ... '•- SZ 

Economic Position of Agriculture ... ... ^^ 

Relative Scope of Universities and Conditions of 

their Success ... ... ... ... ^6 

Ability and Attitude of Farmers ... ... 59 

Value of American Experience in Agricultural 

Education. Scope of Practical Suggestions ... 62 
Department of Agriculture and Horticulture at 

University College, Reading ... ... 64 

General ... ... ... ... 64 

Buildings and Equipment ... ... ... 6^ 

Farm, Fruit Station, and Gardens ... ... 66 

Courses of Instruction ... ... ... 66 



StafF ... 
Students 

Extension Work : Experiments 
Two-fold Nature of the Problem 
Questions of Internal Policy 
Staff ... 
Curriculum 
Control 

Character of Courses 
The Teaching of Science 
Admission and Entrance of Students 
The Farm 

Experiments and Research 
Buildings 

After Careers of Students 
Questions of External Policy 
The Opportunity of the College 
Knowledge of Local Conditions 
Co-operation with County Councils 
Institution of an Extension Section 
Summary of Suggestions 
Concluding Remarks 



PAGE 

68 
68 

70 

71 
73 
73 
IS 
IS 
76 
78 
83 

85 
86 

88 

89 

90 

90 

93 
94 

99 

102 

104 



Part II. Other Aspects of University Developments. 



A. Note on Libraries 

McGill University Library, Montreal ... 
Macdonald College Library, St. Anne de Bellevue 
Toronto University Library ... 
Cornell University Library 
Concluding Remarks 



108 

1 10 

1 1 1 

1 12 
112 
114 



B. Note on the Teaching of Domestic Science to Women 

in Canada ... ... ... ...116 

The School of Household Science at Macdonald 

College ... ... ... ... 1 1 7 

The Department of Home Economics, Guelph, 

(Ontario Agricultural College) ... ... 120 

Concluding Remarks ... ... ... 123 



C. Note on Residence Systems for Students 



... 126 



Introductory Note. 

The Council of University College, Reading, desire 
to state that the sending of a Deputation on their behalf 
to the Universities of Canada and of the United States 
was made possible owing to an offer on the part of two 
of their members, Mr. Leonard Sutton and Mr. Alfred 
Palmer, who most generously undertook to defray jointly 
all expenses in connexion with the tour. 

The drafting of the following Report was undertaken 
by Principal Childs, and carried out by him in consultation 
with the other members of the Deputation, whose obser- 
vations and unanimous views it embodies. The Report 
has been presented to the Council of University College, 
and is now printed and published by their direction. 



J. Herbert Benyon, 

President of University QoIIege^ 'fading. 

Owen Ridley, 

Qbairman of Qouncil. 



S^vember 22W, 19 10. 



APPOINTMENT OF DEPUTATION. 



REPORT of the Deputation appointed by the Council 
of University College, Reading, to visit Universities 
of Canada and of the United States of America. 



Appointment, Purpose, and Composition 
OF THE Deputation. 

On March 22, 19 10, the Council of University 
College, Reading, passed the follow^ing Resolution : 

"That a Deputation from this Council and College 
be hereby constituted and appointed with authority to 
visit during May and June, 19 10, selected centres of 
agricultural education and research in the United States 
and Canada with the object of collecting information, to 
be presented in a report and in other ways, such as may 
be of use in developing the efficiency of agricultural and 
horticultural education and research ; and that the Depu- 
tation be also requested to investigate, as may be convenient, 
and report upon any other aspects of University and 
College development which may appear deserving of 
note." 



8 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

The members of the Deputation appointed in 
accordance with this Resolution were : 

Mr. Leonard Sutton, J. P. Member of the Council of 
University College, Reading ; member of the Firm of 
Sutton & Sons, Reading ; member of the Royal Agricul- 
tural College, Cirencester; Fellow of the Linnasan Society ; 
and member of the Town Council of the County Borough 
of Reading. 

Mr. E. D. Mansfield, M.A. Trinity College, 
Oxford, J. P. Member of the Council of University 
College, Reading ; member of the Berkshire County 
Council ; and Chairman of the Berkshire Higher 
Education Committee. 

Principal W. M. Childs, M.A. Keble College, 
Oxford. Member of the Council of University 
College, Reading ; member of the Education Committees 
for Reading, Berkshire, and Hampshire. 

Professor Frederick Keeble, M.A., Sc.D. Caius 
College, Cambridge. Member of the Council of 
University College, Reading ; Dean of the Faculty of 
Science ; and Editor of "The Gardeners' Chronicle." 

Mr. R. V. O. Hart-Synnot, D.S.O., B.Sc. London. 
Director of the Department of Agriculture and 
Horticulture, University College, Reading ; and member 
of the Advisory Board for Agricultural Education, 
Berkshire Education Committee. 



Plan and Scope of Tour. 

The Deputation landed at Quebec on May 13, 
1 9 10, and sailed from New York on June 11. The 
duration of the stay in America being thus limited, it 
would clearly have been unwise to attempt many visits 
of inspection. Only a few institutions therefore, were 
visited, and these were chosen because of their high 
reputation, particularly in lines of work relating to the 
special mission of the Deputation. Even so, we, the 



PLAN OF TOUR. 9 

members of the Deputation, desire to guard ourselves at 
the outset against possible misconception. We do not 
attempt in the following pages to present the reader with 
a sufficient or final estimate of the activities of any single 
institution. The range of Canadian and American 
Universities is so wide and various, that not only does 
each carry on many branches of work which we had no 
opportunity to consider, but even the selected aspects and 
departments studied with all the energy at our command 
are far too extensive and elaborate to admit of our 
claiming to treat them with completeness. For example, 
any attempt to describe exhaustively the buildings which 
we inspected would fill many hundreds of pages. We 
must be content to offer here only a selection of facts and 
considerations, calling attention more especially to those 
which seem to us to have interest and value for English 
readers. We hope also that our anxious care to avoid 
error and misrepresentation has not been in vain. 

The following institutions in Canada were visited in 
the order named : the McGill University, Montreal, and 
the associated Macdonald College, St. Anne de Bellevue ; 
the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa ; the Ontario 
Agricultural College, Guelph. A brief visit of inspection 
was also paid to the University of Toronto. 

The following institutions in the United States were 
visited : Cornell University (including the New York 
State College of Agriculture) ; and Wisconsin University, 
(including the College of Agriculture). A short visit 
was also paid to Harvard University, and an unofficial 
visit to Yale University. 

Both in Canada and in the United States the 
Deputation had the advantage of numerous interviews 
with representative persons and officials other than those 
met at Universities. Several visits to special farms, 
gardens, &c., were also paid. 



lo AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

Acknowledgments. 

We wish to acknowledge with the most cordial 
appreciation the hospitality and courtesy with which we 
were invariably received. The task entrusted to us, 
though deeply interesting, was in a high degree arduous, 
and it would indeed have been attempted in vain without 
the sympathetic co-operation of the institutions visited. 
We were met everywhere by a frank and friendly desire 
to place us in possession of the facts, and to facilitate our 
enquiries in every possible way. We were repeatedly 
indebted to the Presidents of the Universities visited, and 
to Professors and Lecturers, for personal courtesies which 
added greatly not only to the fruitfulness but to the 
pleasure of our tour. In Canada the Deputation had the 
good fortune to secure the kind interest and support of 
His Excellency the Governor General, Lord Grey ; and 
our thanks are especially due to him for all his exertions 
on our behalf. In the United States our chief visit was 
to Cornell University, and we retain very pleasant 
memories of marked courtesies and attentions which we 
received at the hands of President Schurman, and of the 
Acting Director of the College of Agriculture, Professor 
Webber. 



Scheme of the Report. 

In accordance with the Resolution quoted above, 
constituting the Deputation, we have arranged the 
contents of our Report in the following order : — 

Part I. (Agriculture. 

A. Notes on Institutions visited and on inquiries made 
in Canada and the United States : — 

I. The Macdonald College, St. Anne de Bellevue. 

II. The Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa. 

III. The Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph. 

IV. The Agricultural Policy of the Government of 

Ontario. 



SCHEME OF REPORT. ii 

V. Cornell University (including the New York State 

College of Agriculture). 

VI. Wisconsin University (including the College of 

Agriculture). 

B. Observations upon Agricultural Education in America 
and in England : — 

I. Introductory. 

II. Differences in the conditions of agricultural edu- 

cation in England and in America. 

III. The Department of Agriculture and Horticulture 

at University College, Reading. 

IV. Questions of Internal Policy. 

V. Questions of External Policy. 

VI. Summary of suggestions, and concluding remarks. 

Part II. Other Aspects of University DevelopmetJt. 

A. Note on Libraries. 

B. Note on the Teaching of Domestic Science to 

Women in Canada. 

C. Note on Residence Systems for Students. 



12 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

PART I. AGRICULTURE. 
A. 

Notes on Institutions Visited in Canada and in 
THE United States. 

I. The Macdonald College, St. Anne de Bellevue. 

( I ) General. 

Macdonald College, a new institution, has been 
founded and endowed at a cost of nearly a million 
sterling by Sir William Macdonald, one of Canada's 
greatest educational benefactors. It is not a State 
institution, and it does not receive State grants of money. 
Its object is to meet the educational needs of a com- 
munity mainly rural. Hence it comprises three sections : 
(i) A School of Agriculture ; (2) A School for Teachers; 
and (3) A School of Household Science for Women. 
The aim of the College is to provide for Canada through 
these agencies, " increase of productiveness, with improve- 
ment of products in the field and in the industries of the 
farm and the town, greater comfort and enjoyment in the 
home, a better taught school for the children, and a 
nobler sense of the responsibilities of life." (Macdonald 
College Announcement, 1910-11, p. 7). There is 
much in this conception and in the organization of the 
College which is to be attributed to the example of the 
older agricultural institution at Guelph, Ontario. 

The College is incorporated with McGill University, 
at Montreal, and constitutes its Faculty of Agriculture. 
Thus Macdonald College Students are eligible for a degree 
in Agriculture given by McGill University. This 
association with the neighbouring University was 
deliberately preferred to autonomy, as tending to assure 
the character of Macdonald College as a University 
institution. 

The College is situated in the open country, twenty 
miles west of Montreal, close to the C.P.R. station of 
St. Anne de Bellevue. The site, which overlooks the 
Ottawa River, comprises altogether 561 acres. The 
buildings, which are disposed around an extensive campus, 



MACDONALD COLLEGE. 13 

are of uniform and imposing character. The largest 
is the Main Building, which includes the training schools 
for teachers and for household science ; the Women's 
Residence, which includes the common dining room ; 
and the Men's Residence. These, however, are merely 
the massive core of a remarkable assembly of buildings 
for scientific, agricultural, and residential purposes. The 
English visitor, indeed, is astonished not only by the 
spaciousness and completeness of the accommodation pro- 
vided, and by the perfection and ingenuity of its appliances, 
but also by the vast initial cost of erection and equipment, 
and the permanent cost of maintenance. He is not 
surprised to learn that the resources of the institution are 
already strained, and indeed unable to provide with 
commensurate liberality for the legitimate charges of 
teaching and research. It is necessary to bear in mind 
that Macdonald College is only now entering upon its 
fourth year ; that the ideal of its founder, and of those 
associated with him, has been an ambitious one ; and that 
some time must elapse before so bold a project can come 
to fruition, and before full advantage can be taken of the 
lessons of experience.* 

(2) Buildings and Equipment. 

There is a generous supply of well-equipped 
laboratories and class-rooms for all branches of agriculture 
and horticulture, and for the allied sciences. Of special 
interest is the large museum of agricultural machinery 
where students are taught the construction of farm 
implements. This museum, in conjunction with a course 
of lectures on farm mechanics, forms a most valuable 
feature in the equipment of the College. 

(3) The Farm. 

The Farm consists of 387 acres worked on a four 

*At Montreal, members of the Deputation enjoyed the privilege of a conversation 
with Sir William Macdonald upon the aims of the College. Their visit to St. 
Anne's unfortunately coincided with the absence ot Principal Robertson (who has 
since received an important public appointment) in Europe : but they heard 
much of his distinguished services to Macdonald College and to Canadian 
education, while the Acting Principal, Dr. F. S. Harrison, most kindly gave 
them every information on the spot. 



14 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

course rotation : (i) Roots or Maize (2) Grain (3) 
Seeds (4) one year's pasture. Signs of good 
cultivation were abundant, and the luxuriant clover crop, 
due doubtless to a more thorough working of the soil, 
contrasted markedly with the poor herbage on some 
neighbouring fields. Besides the main Farm, there is a 
horticultural station of 70 acres, of which 20 acres is 
orchard. There are also about 400 small plots devoted 
chiefly to cereal breeding. 

The Farm buildings will accommodate 100 cows 
and 180 young stock, 20 horses, 1,000 fowls, and a 
number of pigs. 

The Live Stock at present on the Farm includes : 
(a) Pigs : Yorkshires, Berkshires and Tamworths. (b) 
Poultry : Plymouth Rocks, White Wyandottes, White 
Leghorns, Faverolles, Rhode Island Reds. The fowls live 
in their colony-houses throughout the winter. They are 
fed on dry corn, and lay well and keep healthy without 
the use of any artificial heat. (c) Cattle : the chief 
feature is the herd of Ayrshires. Dairy Shorthorns and 
French-Canadians are also kept. The Farm supplies the 
College with milk and fresh meat, and students are able 
to learn the methods of slaughtering, and of judging 
carcases. There is a large pavilion for judging live 
animals, and the slaughter house is specially equipped for 
judging the carcases. 

(4) Courses of Instruction. 

Courses of instruction occupy about thirty weeks in 
a year of two terms, October to December, and January 
to April or May. The courses may be thus classified : — 
(a) Short practical courses, of about two weeks' duration, 
intended for farmers, and farmers' sons. The subjects 
dealt with include Live Stock and Cereal Husbandry ; 
and Horticulture and Poultry. 

(b) Two Years' Diploma Course, intended primarily 
for farmers' sons. The first year is devoted to agricultural 
subjects (with Veterinary Science) and Nature Study ; and 
to Drawing, History, English and Arithmetic. A course 



MACDONALD COLLEGE. 15 

of physical training is compulsory. During the second 
year the study of agricultural subjects is continued, while 
the Nature Study courses are succeeded by instruction in 
the elements of the agricultural sciences. It is noteworthy 
that not more pure science is taught than suffices to 
enable the applied work to be understood. English and 
general studies are continued. The total number of 
subjects studied in each of the two years seems excessive. 
At any given time a student will be attending 16 different 
lecture courses, and his time table will show from 29 to 
34 hours of instruction weekly. 

(c) Four Years' Degree Course. Instruction during 
the first two years is identical with that provided for the 
Diploma Course, In the third year pure science is 
entered upon in earnest, full courses being given in Botany, 
Entomology, Chemistry, and Physics. The agricultural 
side is represented by Dairy Bacteriology, Forestry, 
Agricultural History, and Economics ; while general 
studies include English Literature, French, and Trigono- 
metry. A third year student is likely to be pursuing i 3 
diffisrent courses. In the fourth year, however, some 
specialization is permitted. A student may give special 
attention to Animal Husbandry, or Cereal Husbandry, or 
Horticulture ; but in any case he will also be receiving 
instruction in English Literature, French, and Mathe- 
matics ; and also in Heredity, Agricultural Bacteriology, 
Plant Diseases, Chemistry of Soils and Fertilisers, Soil 
Physics, and Climatology. He is further required to 
work at a thesis on an approved subject. 

(5) Summer Vacation. 

The summer vacation occupies four or five months. 
Ordinary students are required to work on their home 
farms. A few selected students are allowed to work on 
the College Farm, where they receive the current rate of 
wages. 

(6) Fees. 

I. Tuition Fees. Students resident in the Province 
of Quebec receive free tuition during their first two 



1 6 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

years. In each of the third and fourth years they pay 
$50. Canadians not residing in the Province of Quebec 
pay $50 a year, and non-Canadians $100. 

2. Residence. Each bed-sitting room is shared by 
two students. All meals are taken in common hall. 
The charge for board and lodging amounts to $4 weekly. 

In the case of degree students, the cost of tuition 
and residence for each year of 30 weeks is equivalent to 
about >C34 for local students, and >C44 for others. Sundry 
charges for laboratory materials, laundry, medical attend- 
ance, etc., raise these totals to about ^^40 and £^0 
respectively. 

(7) Staf. 

The teaching work is divided into the following 
departments, the staff being indicated in each case : 

Departments of Practice. 

Cereal Husbandry - A Professor and a Lecturer. 
Animal Husbandry - „ „ 

Horticulture - - „ „ 

Poultry - - A Lecturer. 

Farm Management- „ 

Dairying - - 

Departments of Science. 

Bacteriology - - A Professor and two Assistants. 

Biology - - A Professor and one Assistant. 

Physics - - „ „ 

Chemistry - - ,, ,, 

Zoology and Entomology — A Lecturer. 

Other Departments. 

Nature Study - A Professor. 

Manual Training - An Instructor. 
Physical Culture - „ 

History and English A Lecturer. 

Total : 15 Departments and a Staff of 23 persons. 

(8) Conditions oj' Students' Entrance. 

Those desirous of admission to Macdonald College 



MACDONALD COLLEGE. 17 

must : (i) be 17 years of age (2) produce a satisfactory 
medical certificate as regards health and vaccination (3) 
produce evidence of having w^orked upon a farm from 
seed-time to harvest. In respect of ability, short course 
students must be able to read and write English acceptably, 
and must have some knowledge of arithmetic, history, 
and geography. Candidates for admission to the degree 
course must pass the McGill University matriculation 
examination, or an equivalent. Moreover, degree students 
are not admitted to the third year courses unless their 
record during the previous two years has been satisfactory. 

(9) ReIatio?7s with Farmers. 

The very recent institution of the College accounts 
for the fact that as yet its external activities are only in a 
preliminary stage. 



1 8 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

II. The Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa. 

The Experimental Farm at Ottawa was established 
twenty-five years ago by the Canadian Government, and 
from that date until now its progress and reputation have 
been associated with the distinguished services of its 
Director, Dr. William Saunders, C.M.G., LL.D. The 
buildings, which are unassuming, are attractively situated 
in an arboretum of 65 acres. Adjoining this are the 
horticultural station and the experimental farm, about 400 
acres in extent. Financial responsibility is borne by the 
Dominion Government, and the present annual cost of 
the institution is about ^22,000, but this sum, though 
inclusive of wages, does not include the stipends of the 
staff. There are no students ; but the staff undertake a 
heavy burden, greater perhaps than should be placed upon 
men engaged in research, in dealing with enquiries by 
correspondence. About 50,000 letters of enquiry are 
received and answered every year. 

The laboratories are not large, but there are excellent 
farm buildings. The Farm is on sandy soil, but the 
texture is so fine that, if well compressed, there is no 
difficulty with drought. The objects of the Farm are to 
demonstrate the most economical handling of cattle from 
a business point of view ; to carry out experiments in 
feeding ; and to improve the breeds of live stock. The 
stock kept is considerable. Horses are represented by 
Clydesdales and Percherons. There are 138 cattle (43 
steers and 95 breeding cattle). Shorthorns, Guernseys, 
Ayrshires, and Canadians are all represented. The cows 
are kept very clean, and the whole herd is admirably 
managed. Much attention is paid to methods of feeding. 
Careful records of all kinds are kept, and their analysis 
should ultimately yield results of much value. There are 
about 30 sheep, Shropshires and Leicesters ; and 136 pigs, 
the breeds including Berkshires,Tamworths, and Yorkshires. 

The Central Experimental Farm is a State institution, 
and the staff advise the Government in all questions 
relating to agriculture. The relations between the Central 
Farm and the other agricultural institutions, of Canada 



EXPERIMENTAL FARM, OTTAWA. 19 

are less clear. It is obvious that there are many problems 
of general interest and importance with which the 
Dominion Government can deal more effectively than 
any Provincial Government ; and the existence of a Central 
Agricultural Station presupposes some differentiation of 
agricultural problems into national and local. It is evident 
that the increasing number and activity of agricultural 
colleges and institutions in Canada must steadily give 
importance and urgency to this question of correlation 
and co-ordination of effort. In the meanwhile the Central 
Farm at Ottawa is strengthening its hold upon the public 
by establishing subordinate stations at different points in 
the vast area of the Dominion. At present, stations of 
this kind exist in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, 
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta (2), and British 
Columbia. Each station has its own staff, but its main 
activities are under the direction and supervision of an 
Inspector from the Central Farm at Ottawa. As the 
system develops, Canada will be provided with a valuable 
organisation for agricultural investigation, and, if this 
organisation is appropriately associated with the teaching 
centres, the prospects of rapid progress are most encouraging. 



20 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

III. The Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph. 

( 1 ) General, 

The Ontario Agricultural College is situated on the 
outskirts of the small town of Guelph, about forty miles 
west of Toronto. Electric cars run between College 
and town. The College was founded in 1874, by the 
State of Ontario. It was then realised not only that the 
mainstay of Canadian prosperity must lie in agriculture, 
but that only a small minority of farmers were working 
on sound methods. Most of them at that date depended 
upon increased acreage for increased returns. Hence, the 
College was established with two objects : (i) to train 
young men in the science and art of improved husbandry 

(2) to conduct experiments and publish the results. In 
1904, through the action of Sir William Macdonald, the 
Macdonald Institute was erected, and the College thus 
enlarged its scope so as to provide also courses of 
instruction in Home Economics, chiefly for farmers' 
daughters, and a training course for teachers of both 
sexes. Thus at Guelph, as at St. Anne de Bellevue, the 
broad and generous policy of Sir William Macdonald has 
made possible an agricultural institution which attacks 
the rural problem at three fundamental points. Both 
institutions endeavour to give a training which shall 
result in better farmers, better wives, and better teachers. 

The College at Guelph is affiliated to the University 
of Toronto, and Guelph students are eligible for the 
degree in Agriculture granted by that University. 

(2) Finance. 

The College is a State institution and is financed and 
controlled by the Government of Ontario. The following 
summary for 1909 conveys an instructive idea of the 
liberality of the support given to the College : 



GUELPH AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 21 

Net deficiency 





Expend! 


ture 


Revenue 


borne by 












Government 


The College 


$ 


C. 


$ 


C. 


$ 


c. 


(including sal- 














aries of staff and 














fees of students 














and boarding 














accounts) 


106,078 , 


.62 


30,007 . 


31 


76,071 , 


■ 31 


Macdonald In- 














stitute and Hall 


28,204 , 


■ 13 


19,074. 


.36 


9,129 , 


'11 


The Farm 


14,086 . 


, 01 


7,048 . 


07 


7.037 


•94 


Experimental 














Department 


10,026 . 


■ 35 


120 . 


, 00 


9,906 


• 35 


Dairy Depart- 














ment 


13.746 . 


.07 


6,955 • 


14 


6,790 


■ 93 


Poultry - 


4,187, 


•63 


2,085 . 


, 62 


2,102 , 


. 01 


Horticulture - 


9,052. 


.04 


104 . 


■ 27 


8,947 


'11 


Mech an i c a 1 














Department 


865, 


.98 






865, 


.98 






Soil Physics - 


1,000 , 


. 00 






1,000 , 


on 






» \j \^ 


Forestry 


1,249, 


.58 






1,249, 


.58 








188,496, 


.41 


65^394 • 


■11 


123,101 , 


.64 



Thus the Government of Ontario subsidises this 
College to the extent of nearly ^^2 5,000 a year. The 
material return for this outlay may be given in official 
w^ords as follows: — "The application of scientific principles 
to the practical operations of the farm, and the interchange 
and dissemination of the results of experiments conducted 
at the Agricultural College, and the practical experience 
on the part of successful farmers, have increased the returns 
from the farm far in excess of the expenditure on account 
thereof. The direct gain in yield in one class of grain 
alone has more than covered the total cost of agricultural 
education and experimental work in the Province." 
(Handbook on Women's Institutes, Ontario Department 
of Agriculture, 1908, pp. 6-7.) 



22 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

(2) Buildings and Equipment. 

The College is pleasantly situated on a well-planted 
campus in the midst of the Farm. The main group of 
buildings comprises the Macdonald Institute, the Women's 
hall of residence — a spacious and admirable building — , 
the building which contains the College headquarters 
and accommodation for the men's residence, and the 
chief laboratories, library, museum, &c. The Guelph 
buildings as a whole lack the imposing character and 
uniformity of those at St. Anne de Bellevue, but in their 
air of maturity they possess a distinction which at once 
strikes the English visitor. According to new world 
standards, the Guelph College is already old: and inspection 
of it leaves a satisfactory impression of natural and steady 
development. Its buildings, which are numerous and are 
suitably equipped, have been erected as circumstances 
demanded. Particular attention may be called to the 
large Machinery Hall where examples of the most modern 
types of agricultural implements and machines are kept 
for teaching purposes. In the same Hall is also an 
interesting nucleus of a collection of bygone agricultural 
tools, &c., which deserves careful fostering and a room to 
itself. The Dairy is well-equipped both with hand-and 
power-machinery. About 80,000 lbs. of butter and 
20,000 lbs. of cheese are made annually, the milk being 
supplied by neighbouring farmers. 

(3) The Farm. 

The Farm consists of about 345 acres, the arable 
portion being farmed on a four course rotation: (i) Maize 
or Roots (2) Oats (3) Seeds (4) Wheat (sown in 
the autumn*). There is some permanent pasture of a 
coarse character, which in places is very wet. Experimental 
plots occupy 50 acres, and are chiefly devoted to cereal 
varieties bred by "selection." There are also a number 
of alfalfa plots for testing varieties: at present, Turkestan 
alfalfa gives the best results. Peruvian and Arabian 
varieties cropped well for a year, but then died out. The 

* Spring-sown wheat is found to suffer severely from " rust." 



GUELPH AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 23 

ground devoted to Horticulture consists of 23 acres of 
orchard and 6 acres of vegetables. 

The Farm buildings include a good stock-judging 
pavilion which will seat 300. There the College herds 
are judged, and also typical animals from the best farms 
in Ontario, There is a large cowhouse and a good supply 
of other buildings for farm purposes. 

The Live Stock at present on the Farm includes : 
{a) Pigs. Yorkshires (Large Whites), Berkshires, and 
Tamworths. [b) Poultry. Twenty-five varieties and i 5 
breeds are kept ; 2J acres are worked under a special 
poultry rotation : (i) Alfalfa (3 — 5 years) (2) Maize 

(3) Grain (4) Grass (5) Grass. The chickens are 
also put out in the orchards. The Lecturer in charge 
did not advocate poultry farming as an independent 
business, but only as supplementary to other kinds of 
farming, such as fruit-growing, [c) Cattle are represented 
by Shorthorns, Angus, Herefords, Galloways, Holsteins, 
Ayrshires, and Jerseys. The cows are kept in throughout 
the winter and are turned out to pasture about mid-June. 
When placed on seeds pasture they are fed in the morning, 
before being turned out, in order to prevent over-eating 
in the field. About an acre per cow is required for the 
3 J months (mid-June to the end of September). (d) 
Sheep are represented by Border-Leicesters, Shropshires, 
and Oxfords. 

(4) Courses of Instruction. 

As at Macdonald College, the courses at Guelph are 
arranged to occupy 30 weeks divided into two terms, 
September to December (10 weeks), and January to April 
or May (14 or 20 weeks). This arrangement enables 
students to be at home for seed-time, haying, and harvest. 

The courses of instruction may be thus classified : — 

(a) Short Courses. — Of these there is a variety, 
such as two weeks' courses in (i) Horticulture, or (2) 
Stock-judging, and Seed-judging ; a four weeks' course in 
Poultry ; a twelve weeks' course in Dairying for 
the farmer, and a similar course for the factory dairy- 



24 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

man. It is also possible for students to join the 
College at any time for practical instruction only, for 
which the fee charged is nominal. All these short 
courses are of the usual practical character, and do not 
seek to attain more than a limited though useful aim. 

(b) Two Years' Diploma Course, intended primarily 
for farmers' sons. — The first year's programme includes 
agricultural subjects, pure and applied sciences, English, 
and Arithmetic. Sixteen subjects are dealt with, 
involving about 26 hours a week. The second year's 
work is similar ; training in public speaking is added, 
and a thesis and certain collections must be prepared. 
Practical work on the farm is compulsory for both years 
on alternate afternoons throughout the Session. Students 
are paid for their labour (except for work done during 
farm classes) at rates varying from 5 to 9 cents per hour: 
in 1909 the sum thus paid for student labour amounted 
to £650. Students who have acquitted themselves well 
during the two years' diploma course and who desire to 
continue to study some of their second year subjects, are 
permitted to remain at College for a third year without 
thereby being obliged to enter upon the four years' course, 
described below. 

(c) Four Years' Degree Course. — Instruction during 
the first two years is identical with that provided for the 
Diploma Course. Admission to the degree course is 
carefully controlled. Thus a student may not enter for it 
unless he has obtained during his Diploma Course 60 per 
cent, marks in English, and 50 per cent, in other subjects. 
Also, he must have spent a period of one year or more, 
under approved conditions, at the practical work of that 
branch of agriculture in which he proposes to specialise. 
If, for example, agriculture itself is the branch selected, the 
student must have spent at least two years with a practical 
farmer ; if dairying, then one season must have been spent 
in a cheese factory and one in a creamery ; if horticulture, 
then a year's service with a fruit grower or florist is 
required. The third year's programme for a student who 
has satisfied these conditions includes eight subjects : four 



GUELPH AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 25 

pure Sciences, Entomology, English, French or German, 
and Economics. The time-table covers about 30 hours 
weekly. The year concludes with a six week's course of 
Nature Study. Before entering upon the fourth year, 
each student must present a brief report on the principal 
insect and fungoid pests of his own neighbourhood. 

In the fourth year, specialisation is more marked. 
A candidate selects one of six groups of studies. Each 
group embraces from seven to eleven subjects, of which 
English, French or German, and a thesis are always 
three. Economics is also included in all groups except 
the Chemical. From one third to one half of the subjects 
in each group rank as "major subjects," and for these the 
percentage of pass marks is higher than for the rest. 

(5) Fees. 

Ontario students pay inclusive fees of about $120 
{£2^) for each of the first two years, and $1 50 {£2^) ^^^ 
each of the second two years. Canadians other than 
Ontario residents pay about ^^30, and all other students 
pay about £25- '^^^ charges for tuition vary in individual 
cases, but all students pay $3 a week for board. Ontario 
residents are admitted to the Short Courses without fee, 
but other persons pay $5. 

(6) StaJ. 

The Staff of Professors, Lecturers, and Instructors 
numbers about fifty. There are naturally wide differences 
in calibre and standing. It would appear also that 
teaching duties, and the work of carrying out demonstrations 
for the great number of visitors annually received, are 
very absorbing, and trench somewhat upon leisure and 
opportunity for experiments and research. 

(7) Conditions of Students' Entrance. 

Those desirous of admission to the Guelph College 
must : (i) Be 16 years of age (2) Produce evidence as 
to character, and as to seriousness of purpose in seeking 
admission to the College (3) Produce a satisfactory 
health certificate (4) Have spent a year on a farm, and 
possess a fair practical knowledge of farm work (5) Pass 



26 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

an entrance examination in Arithmetic, Geography, and 
Enghsh. (This examination is not a condition of entrance 
to courses of less duration than one year). 

(8) Slumber of Students. 

The statistics for 1909 are : — 

Diploma and Degree Courses - - - 439 

Dairy Courses - - - - - 36 

Short Course in Stock and Seed Judging - - 207 

„ Poultry - - - 15 

,, ,, ,, Horticulture - - - 54. 

Special Students - - - -15 

Teachers' Courses - - - - 134 

Domestic Science - - - - 314 

Nature Study, &c. - - - - 84 

Total - 1,298 



(9) Stock Judging Competition. 

An interesting point, and one deserving of attention 
in England, is that every year the College sends a team 
of five fourth-year students to take part in an inter- 
Collegiate stock-judging competition at Chicago. 

(10) '^lations 'Voith Farmers. 

Prior to his appointment as head of the Guelph College 
in 1 904, President Creelman had been Superintendent of 
Farmers' Institutes, and had founded the parallel Institutes 
for Women. His personal influence, therefore, is doubtless 
a main reason for the strong hold which the College at 
Guelph has upon the public interest, and particularly 
upon farmers. Guelph, in fact, impresses the visitor 
not so much through its teaching energy, though this is 
striking, nor through its research activities, though these 
deserve attention, as through its effectiveness as an 
instrument of public and national policy. Whatever the 
means employed, its single aim under State direction is to 
convey knov^ledge of improved methods of agriculture 
to the farmers of Ontario and Canada. It brings to the 
farmer's door the latest discoveries of agricultural science, 



GUELPH AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 27 

whether made at Guelph, Ottawa, or elsewhere. Its 
function in short is to be the aggressive distributor of the 
best ideas and methods; and no part of its organisation is 
more deserving of study by the Enghsh visitor than this. 
Some account will be given on a later page of the 
extension methods employed in Canada by the Dominion 
and State Governments, and further reference will then be 
made to Guelph. It will, however, be convenient to 
mention here the four principal ways in which the 
College maintains contact with the farmers: — (i) By 
arranging numerous excursions from various districts in 
order to inspect the College and its Farm during the 
month of June. The railway and the electric cars bring 
the visitors to the College doors: they go where they 
please about the Farm and buildings ; demonstrations are 
organised for their instruction ; and the State provides a 
simple lunch. The popularity of these visits is 
demonstrated by the numbers taking part in them, and 
their scale is indeed far beyond any English parallel. We 
were informed that, during June, 19 10, visits were 
expected from more than 40,000 farmers. (2) By the 
Experimental Union, chiefly composed of old students of 
the College. The Experimental Union was established 
in 1885 ; and in 1909 about 400 of its members, widely 
distributed throughout the Province of Ontario, were 
carrying out, jointly, carefully planned experiments in 
Agriculture, Horticulture, Forestry, and Poultry-keeping. 
Between 1886 and 1909, the number of co-operative 
experiments conducted was 54,345. " In Agriculture alone 
definite experimental work was conducted on measured plots 
on no less than 4,853 farms in 1909." "It is impossible to 
estimate the influence of the co-operative experiments in 
Ontario in bringing 25,000 to 30,000 farmers to visit the 
College annually, in overflowing the College with students, 
in doubling the output of Ontario farms during the past 
sixteen years, and in the betterment both of the farmers 
and the farms of Ontario." (See Report of Ontario of 
Agricultural and Experimental Union, 1909, pp. 9-10, 
etc.) (3) By the system of appointing College graduates 



2 8 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

as county specialists. The mission of these speciaHsts is 
to win the confidence of the district farmers. The 
speciaHst organises farmers' clubs; he advises the farmers, 
when opportunity occurs, upon technical matters, such as 
drainage, pests, tuberculosis, etc.; he places him in touch 
with the College. Further the specialist is attached to 
the local high school, and he teaches there on certain 
afternoons of each week. About eleven of these College 
missionaries have already been appointed. The scheme 
promises well, and it is hoped that in time a College 
specialist will be found in every county town. The system 
is analogous to that of the County Instructors in England 
and Ireland, with the noteworthy and far-reaching 
difference that in Canada the local instructor is in close 
association with an agricultural institution of the first 
standing as his head-quarters. (4) By publishing and 
distributing bulletins and leaflets on agricultural practice, 
by answering enquiries by correspondence, by sending 
members of the Staff to address farmers' clubs and similar 
institutions, and by analysing and reporting upon samples 
submitted by farmers to the College laboratories. 



AGRICULTURAL POLICY, ONTARIO. 29 

IV. The Agricultural Policy of the Government of 

Ontario. 

Tw^o members of the Deputation had the advantage 
of an interview^ at Toronto v\^ith Mr. James, Deputy 
Minister for Agriculture in the Province of Ontario. 
Mr. James explained the methods adopted by the Ontario 
Government in dealing with the rural problem. That 
there is a rural problem in Canada, as in older countries, 
is show^n by the surprising fact, instanced by Mr. James, 
that in the State of Ontario, notwithstanding its agricul- 
tural celebrity, there are fewer farmers to-day than there were 
ten years ago. He attributed the drift into the towns to two 
main causes : the greater opportunities of making wealth 
rapidly, and their superior social attractiveness. Complaints 
are often heard of the dullness of village life in England ; 
but in Canada organised village life hardly exists. 
Population is thinly scattered over great areas ; and 
opportunities of social intercourse are few. Take, for 
example, the case of the farmers' wife. Mr. James 
remarked that even the widespread interest in religion in 
rural Canada severs as well as unites, for the religious 
organisations are sharply distinct. He had been told, 
for instance, by a farmer's wife that the only occasion 
which brought the women of any large district together 
with a common purpose was a funeral. Sir Horace 
Plunkett's maxim that better living is as much a condition 
of rural prosperity as better business is strongly enforced 
by experience in Ontario. The Department of Agriculture 
has, therefore, boldly faced the whole question, in both its 
economic and its social aspects. The annual budget of 
the Department exceeds ^T 150,000 a year: and nine 
principal agencies are brought to bear upon the problem 
of rural betterment. These agencies are : — 

I . The Guelph College of ^Agriculture . 

This — the pioneer effort of the present agricultural 
policy — has already been fully described. Guelph is the 
capital centre for teaching, for experiment, for expert 
knowledge, and for constructive ideas. From Guelph go 



30 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

forth to the country the trained farmer, the trained rural 
teacher, and the trained housewife. Guelph is a magazine 
of expert knowledge and a factory of profitable ideas for 
application, directly at the service of the Government, 
and kept in sympathetic contact with the farming public 
of the Provinces by numberless personal threads. It is 
worth observing that Guelph could not render these services 
if its spirit were one of cold academic aloofness and 
superiority, or if it were in bondage to an official routine. 
The spirit of Guelph is the opposite of these things, as a 
day spent there in the society of President Creelman and 
his colleagues will assuredly testify. Guelph is an 
interesting example of an institution which on the one 
hand is affiliated to a University (Toronto), and controlled 
by the State, and on the other preserves cordial and 
sympathetic relations with the general public, and continues 
to exhibit a lively vitality of its own. 

2. The Veterinary College. 

The Ontario Veterinary College maintains two-year 
and three-year courses in Veterinary science ; and under 
certain conditions students of the College are eligible for 
the degree of Bachelor of Veterinary Science awarded 
by Toronto University. 

3. Agricultural and Horticultural Societies. 

The agricultural societies are, of course, found in 
the rural districts, while the horticultural societies 
flourish chiefly in the neighbourhood of towns. A 
Superintendent supervises these societies, and organises 
meetings, shows, and exhibitions of produce. 

4. Live Stock Branch. 

Live Stock (apart from Dairying) is so important an 
interest that societies are formed in reference to it alone, 
and a special Superintendent is appointed to attend to 
their interests. Horse shows, sales of cattle, etc., are 
arranged. 

5. Dairy Branch. 

A Superintendent looks after this branch also. He 



AGRICULTURAL POLICY, ONTARIO. 31 

supervises the Dairy School at Kingston in eastern 
Ontario. Associated with him are 30 inspectors who 
visit cheese factories and creameries, and supervise their 
sanitary conditions and general methods of work. 

6. Fruit Branch. 

Fruit is an important branch of Ontario agriculture. 
An experimental fruit farm is maintained by the Govern- 
ment, in the Niagara district. There are about twelve 
officials who are at work in helping and organizing the 
fruit industry. Part of their work is to organise local 
societies of fruit growers. Honey also comes within 
their reference. 

7. Colonisation Branch. 

The Agricultural Department attends to the settle- 
ment of new lands, and offices with the organisation 
requisite for the purpose are maintained both in Canada 
and in England. 

8. Statistical and Publications Branch. 

Full reports and statistics of the agricultural work 
of each year are presented by the Department to the 
Legislative Assembly. 

9. Institutes for (a) Farmers^ and (b) Women. 

(a) Farmers' Institutes began to arise about 1885, and 
now one of them is found in every county of the Province. 
The chief function of the Institute is to organise a series of 
lectures in its county every winter. It forms local centres 
which may be identical with those of the agricultural 
societies or supplementary to them, the relations between 
the Institute and the agricultural and kindred societies of 
its district being adjusted by the Superintendent of 
Farmers' Institutes. Each year the Superintendent sends 
to each Institute a list of twelve lectures, and the 
Institute arranges for two of them to be given at each of 
its centres. The Superintendent thus employs two 
lecturers throughout the season, each of whom has a list 
of six subjects, on any of which he is competent to 
lecture. 



32 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

(b) Early in the history of the Farmers' Institutes, 
it was found that the farmers who attended the meetings 
brought their wives and daughters with them. The 
interest taken by women in such branches of agriculture 
as fruit-growing, dairying, and poultry raising, led after a 
few years to the formation of Institutes for Women. 
The first of these associations arose in 189 1. In 1900 
there were 33, with a membership of 1,600 ; and in 19 10 
there were no fewer than 554 with a membership of 
14,000. During the year ending June, 1908, these 
Institutes held 3,868 meetings, at which the aggregate 
attendance was 93,780. It is interesting to notice that 
the Institutes have steadily enlarged the scope of their aim 
and function. Content at first to discuss purely agricultural 
topics, they soon entered upon the more general field of 
subjects of interest to mothers and " home-makers." 
Still the scope widened. Meetings are now not simply 
for reiterated discussion of foods, food values, and methods 
of housework, but are occasions also for satisfying the 
claims of general intelligence, and for developing 
neighbourly, civic, and patriotic spirit. They provide, 
in short, a common ground which the social organisation 
of Ontario had lacked hitherto. The official statement 
of the objects of the Women's Institutes runs thus : "the 
dissemination of knowledge relating to domestic economy, 
including household architecture, with special attention to 
home sanitation ; a better understanding of the economic 
and hygienic value of foods, clothing, and fuel, and a more 
scientific care and training of children with a view to 
raising the general standard of the health and morals of 
our people ; or the carrying on of any line of work, 
which has for its object the uplifting of the home, or 
the betterment of conditions surrounding rural life." 
(Handbook for Women's Institutes, 1908, p. 12.) Each 
Institute must hold at least four meetings a year. It can 
secure at least once in each season the services of a 
competent lecturer on payment only of travelling expenses. 
The Institutes possess an official organ in the " Home 
Journal " ; and every year a general Convention is held at 
the Guelph College, which is attended by several hundred 



AGRICULTURAL POLICY, ONTARIO. 33 

delegates and others. A useful Handbook with every 
information concerning the establishment and maintenance 
of Institutes is published, and an Annual Report on the 
work of the Institutes is presented to the Legislative 
Assembly of Ontario. The growth and usefulness of the 
whole movement in spite of not a few difficulties are 
indeed most striking. Imagination has inspired policy, 
and aspirations which otherwise would have lain dormant 
or isolated have found powerful and corporate expression. 
The manifold activity of the Institutes at the present day 
is thus described in Superintendent Putnam's Report for 
1909 to the Minister for Agriculture: "In those sections 
where the work has been established for some years, an 
increased interest is being taken in the growing of flowers, 
planting of shrubbery, installation of labour-saving devices, 
etc. Not only has the Institute influenced the home, but 
the members have gone out among the schools to see that 
the surroundings are sanitary, and that some attention is 
given to beautifying the school grounds, and local councils 
have been approached with a view to inducing them to 
spend time and money in improving the appearance of 
streets in villages and towns. Assistance has been given 
by the Institutes in the installation of street lamps, putting 
down of side-walks, planting of trees, etc. Such work as 
this cannot be done unless the Institute concerned either 
secures money from some local source to assist them in 
their undertakings, or raises funds by holding concerts, 
tea-meetings, etc. The number of libraries established is 
an index of the influence which the Institution is having 
upon the literary tastes of the people. In a majority of 
cases the Institute co-operates with the local library, 
particularly in the purchase of books and periodicals which 
are of special interest to the home makers." (Report on 
the Women's Institutes of Ontario, 1909, p. 5.) 

Note. The appointment of Guelph College graduates 
as agricultural specialists in country towns has already 
been referred to in the section dealing with the Guelph 
College, (see p. 27). The system is likely to develop and 
to become an important means of furthering the rural 
policy of the Ontario Government. 



34 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

V. Cornell University (including the New York 
State College of Agriculture). 

(i) The JJnhersity. 

Cornell University is situated at Ithaca in the north- 
west corner of the State of New York. Ithaca is a 
country town of broad thoroughfares well-planted with 
trees, and possessing much of the charm and seclusion of 
a " garden city." It stands at the southern end of Lake 
Cayuga, a sheet of water more than thirty miles in length 
and varying in width from one mile to three. The town 
climbs eastward towards a steep summit, and here, 
occupying a spacious plateau, is the University. The 
site is a commanding one ; from the campus, which 
extends to nearly 300 acres, the visitor looks down upon 
the blue waters of the lake, and the many-folded hills 
which enclose it. The precincts of the University are 
roughly demarked on the north and south by two ravines, 
deeply cut through the limestone plateau. The sudden 
vistas of lake and hill, the cascades, pools, and torrents in 
ravines spanned by light bridges, the avenues and the 
spaciousness of the campus, endow Cornell University and 
its situation with a romantic beauty. 

The University, with its staff of 578 and student 
roll of over 4,000, dominates the town. The main 
buildings are imposing, particularly the Hall of Humanities 
(dedicated to the late Professor Goldwin Smith, one of 
the first Professors at Cornell University and its signal 
friend), the Rockefeller Physics Laboratory, and the 
Library, the lofty tower of which is a distinctive feature 
of the group. The charm of their setting compensates 
for the severely utilitarian character of the majority, and 
for the indifference to congruity in architectural style. 
It was not possible for the Deputation, during their brief 
stay, to form more than a very general idea of a University 
which, judged by numerical standards, approaches the 
scale of Oxford or Cambridge. Their principal obser- 
vations will relate to Agriculture, together with a few 
notes (on a later page) with regard to Libraries and to 



CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 35 

the Residence of Students. No one, however, can visit 
Cornell even for a few days and fail to receive the 
impression of a strong University spirit. It is omnipresent, 
— in the laboratories, in the library, on the campus, on the 
baseball ground, on the lake, in the streets. It is not 
English, nor is it without a note of strain : but though 
the contrasts with English University conditions are not 
less observable than the resemblances, the English visitor 
of experience will surely recognise in Cornell a great 
University in the making. It is indeed most striking to 
remember that this organisation, now so many-sided and 
so extensive, so rich in lands, buildings, endowments, 
teachers, and students, was originated by a man of humble 
origin, Ezra Cornell, whose death occurred only a few 
years ago ; that its history goes back less than fifty years ; 
and that as recently as twenty years ago its scale was little 
more than that of a small local College. To-day it 
comprises a Graduate School and eight "Colleges": Arts 
and Sciences, Law, Medicine, Veterinary Science, 
Agriculture, Architecture, Civil Engineering, and 
Mechanical Engineering and Mechanic Arts. Students 
throng to Cornell, not only from all parts of the United 
States but from all parts of the world ; nor could any 
instance more significant than the swift growth of Cornell 
be quoted to demonstrate the enthusiasm, the munificence, 
and the ability which during the last quarter of a century 
Americans have lavished upon the creation and develop- 
ment of Universities. 

(2) The College of Agriculture. 

Almost from the earliest days of Cornell University, 
agricultural teaching has been one of its activities ; but a 
decisive advance took place in 1904, when by an act of 
the Legislature of the State of New York the " New 
York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University" 
was established. The sum of ^50,000 was voted for 
buildings, which were occupied in 1907. Like the State 
Veterinary College at Cornell, the College of Agriculture 
is administered by the Board of Trustees of Cornell 



36 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

University.* These two institutions are the only State 
colleges or departments in Cornell University. The 
Agricultural College is supported by (a) direct State 
appropriation (I?) certain parts of the federal funds for 
the maintenance of agricultural colleges (c) annual 
appropriation from Cornell University (^) income 
funds of the College and (e) the Federal Experiment 
Station funds (the Federal Experiment Station being part 
of the College of Agriculture.) Students of the College 
of Agriculture are subject to the University regulations. 

(3) Buildifigs and Equipment. 

The buildings, w^hich v^^ith their equipment cost 
about ;/r8 0,000, consist of a main building, Agronomy 
building. Dairy building, and Animal Husbandry building. 
They contain an abundance of good lecture rooms and 
laboratories. Dairying is exceptionally w^ell supplied, 
there being altogether 26 rooms devoted to it. But the 
increase in the number of students already indicates that 
more buildings will be required, and a large scheme for 
extension is under consideration. The cost of this 
scheme, which it is hoped to execute within ten years, is 
estimated at /^2 5 0,000. Increase in the cost of main- 
tenance will make necessary a revenue of ^^5 0,000, apart 
from ^15,000 for the Veterinary College. 

(4) The Farm. 

The Farm consists of about i ,000 acres, of which 600 
are arable. The land is not of the best quality, and since 
much of it has only been acquired recently, its condition 
cannot well be criticised. It is being worked on a five 
course rotation : (i) and (2) Maize (3) Oats (4) Wheat 

*« -pj^e State is represented on the Board by the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, 
the Speaker of the Assembly, the Commissioner of Education, the Commissioner 
of Agriculture, ex-officio, and by five members appointed by the Governor. The 
people are further represented by the President of the State Agricultural Society 
and by a Trustee appointed by the State Grange. Ten members of the Board 
are elected by the alumni. The fifteen remaining elective members of the Board 
are chosen by the Board itself. It will be seen from the above statement that 
the State now has equal control with the alumni in the Government of the 
University and thus of the College of Agriculture." (" Some facts concerning 
the New York State College of Agriculture." By H. J. Webber, Acting 
Director, p. 5.) 



CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 37 

(5) Clover and Timothy Hay. Progress is being made in 
the various branches of cultivation : orchards are being 
planted, and additional farm buildings are to be erected. 

The Live Stock on the Farm includes [a) Pigs. 
Jersey Reds, and Cheshires (a cross between a local breed 
and the Large White). The pigs are fed chiefly on skim 
milk and purchased middlings, (b) Cattle. Fifty milking 
cows are kept. Holsteins do best, yielding 1,100 to 1,400 
gallons with about 3I per cent. fat. Jerseys also do well 
yielding about 300-400 lbs. of fat per annum. Guernseys 
and Shorthorns show a less satisfactory record. Calves, 
being pedigree animals, are sold for breeding, and fetch 
from $10 to {^30 when seven days old. Fat stock are 
sold to the trade. [c) Sheep. There are several 
mixed breeds. " Hot-house " lambs are reared. These 
are dropped in November or December, killed when eight 
weeks old and shipped to New York. Their dead weight 
is about 33 lbs., and they fetch about $10. {d) Horses. 
The Percheron is the most popular. Clydesdale stallions 
are kept and their service is granted to neighbouring 
farmers. 

(5) Courses of Instructmi. 

Apart from the work done by " Special Students " 
and Postgraduates (see Students below), the organised 
courses of instruction are as follows : — 

(a) Twelve weeks' Courses. (November to February) 
are given in each of the following branches : — General 
Agriculture, Poultry Husbandry, Dairy Industry, Horti- 
culture, and Home Economics. 

Note. Since 1907 a system of " Branch Schools" 
has been started in New York State. These are an 
agricultural variety of the ordinary High School. 
It is hoped that ultimately the Branch Schools will 
provide the instruction given now in the Twelve Weeks' 
Courses at Cornell, and so enable the University to confine 
its attention to the longer courses and the more advanced 
students. 



38 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

(b) Four Years' Course for a Degree. The four 
year course in agriculture is of equal academic rank with 
other degree courses in Cornell University. The year is 
divided into two terms of about 1 2 and 1 8 weeks 
respectively, October to December, and February to June. 
Class work occupies about 1 8 hours per week, in addition 
to physical training and drill which are compulsory. 
The first year's work comprises English, Botany, 
Chemistry, Biology, and Electives (up to four hours 
weekly). In the second year, the subjects are Geology, 
Chemistry, Physics, Physiology, and Electives (up to 13 
hours weekly). The third and fourth years are devoted 
to Agricultural Electives. The students, in accordance 
with the system prevalent in American Universities, 
select subjects from a prescribed list. The subjects are 
arranged in four groups. A student will spend most of 
his time in studying a particular group, but he must also 
give some time to each of the other groups. 

It is noteworthy that the pure science subjects are 
dealt with in the Science Departments, which are distinct 
from those of Agricultural and Applied Science ; and 
that instruction in pure science precedes instruction in 
applied science. This procedure is not considered wholly 
satisfactory, but it is defended on the grounds that the 
previous training of most of the students has been of a 
uniform character, and that the lecturers in applied 
science demand of their students some previous know- 
ledge of pure science. 

(6) Fees. 

" Tuition is free to regular and special students in 
the College of Agriculture." ("Information for Students in 
the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell 
University," Sept., 1909, p. 18). In the case of the Winter 
Courses a tuition fee of $25 is charged to non-residents 
of the State of New York. All students pay a matriculation 
fee of $5 and an infirmary fee of $2. Post-graduates, 
regular third and fourth year students, and all special 
students pay a terminal laboratory fee. A student's 



CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 39 

yearly expenses, including board and lodging for 30 weeks, 
amount to ^^60 and upwards. 

(7) ^taff. 

The Staff of the College of Agriculture numbers 
about 70 Professors, Lecturers, and Instructors. There 
are about 20 departments. In fifteen cases the head of a 
Department is a Professor, whilst in the remaining five the 
head is an Assistant Professor. The Departments are 
these: — Agriculture, Farm Produce, Animal Husbandry, 
Dairy Industry, Agricultural Chemistry, Biology, Entom- 
ology and General Invertebrate Zoology, Drawing, 
Extension Work, Farm Crops and Farm Management, 
Farm Mechanics, Horticulture, Plant Breeding, Plant 
Pathology, Plant Physiology, Poultry Husbandry, Rural 
Economy, Soil Technology, Rural Art, Pomology. 

In addition to these, there are lecturers in Nature 
Study, Home Economics, and Meteorology. The Meteor- 
ologist is a State official with a large district to supervise, 
and with a government recording station to control. He 
lectures to students, but their attendance is voluntary. 

(8) Students and Statistics. 

There are four classes of students : — (i) Those attend- 
ing the short Winter Courses. These courses are described 
as " business or occupational courses, not academic. " 
Admission is by application, and no special conditions 
appear to be enforced. (2) Degree Course Students. 
Men students must be sixteen years of age ; women, 
seventeen. Adequate credentials must be produced, or 
an entrance examination must be passed. Students are 
advised to gain at least one year's practical experience on 
a farm before coming to College. (3) Special Students. 
These students must be 2 1 years of age. They follow no 
prescribed course, but at least two-thirds of all their work 
must be in subjects announced on the official programme 
of the College of Agriculture. Every application for 
admission as a special student is considered on its own 
merits by a Committee of the Faculty. Special students 
tay in the College about two years, and their work is 



40 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

intended to help them to become successful farmers. 
(4) Post-graduates. The large number of post-graduate 
students in Agriculture is a distinctive feature of the 
College. At the date of the Deputation's visit the number 
was 76. 

The registrations of students in the College of 

Agriculture during the past six years are shewn in the 

following table : — 

1904-5 1905-6 1906-7 1907-8 1908-9 1909-10 



Regulars (4 years 














degree Course) 


98 


129 


145 


209 


272 


419 


Specials 


90 


95 


124 


i3« 


144 


120 


Post-graduates - 


31 


40 


36 


43 


58 


58 


Winter Course - 


199 


253 


244 


270 


364 


37' 



Totals - 418 517 549 660 838 968 

The sources of the supply of students during the past 
three years were as follows : — 

Students. 1907-8 1908-9 1909-10 

From New York States - 474 610 706 

,, other States - - 146 188 213 

,, Foreign Countries - 40 40 49 



660 838 968 

A computation made a few years ago shewed that 9 1 per 
cent, of the ex-students of the College were either farming 
or pursuing some line of work directly allied to agriculture.* 

(9) ^I(elations 'Voith Farmers a?jd the Public. 

A separate department of the College of Agriculture 
deals with Extension Teaching. Meetings, demonstrations, 
and lectures are organised at centres in New York State. 
There is a very large issue of leaflets and bulletins, many 
of them well-illustrated. These consist of leaflets, &c. 
relating to the Farmers' 'fading Qourse and the Farmers' 
Whes' 'fading Qourse^ and to courses in Home Suture 
Study, as well as of research publications of a more 
advanced character. The publications of the Agricultural 

* The statistics given in this section are taken from Professor Webber's pamphlet, 
"Some Facts concerning the New York State College of Agriculture" (March, 
1910) pp. lo-i 2. 



CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 41 

Experiment Station include to date (May, 19 10) 22 
annual reports and 277 bulletins. These publications 
are distributed free to such residents of the State as apply 
for them, so far as the means of the Station will permit. 
Many bulletins are sent out free of postal charges, and all 
publications are sent at reduced rates. About 5,000 
farmers receive bulletins about five times a year, and 
14,000 farmers' wives receive the publications of the 
fading Qourse designed for them. Home Stature Study 
leaflets are sent to 6,000 teachers, and to 70,000 boys and 
girls. 



42 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

VI. Wisconsin University : (including the College 
OF Agriculture). 

(i). The University. 

Wisconsin University includes Colleges of Letters 
and Science, Engineering, and Agriculture ; Schools of 
Medicine and of Law ; the Graduate School ; and the 
Extension Division. The history of the University goes 
back to 1836, which, it is interesting to note, was the 
first year of Wisconsin Territory. Little progress, 
however, was made until 1848, when Wisconsin was 
admitted as a State of the Union. In that year the 
Legislature of Wisconsin passed an act for the establishment 
" at or near the village of Madison of an institution of 
learning under the name and style of the University of 
Wisconsin." The government of the University was to 
be by a board of regents elected by the legislature. Thus 
from the outset Wisconsin University has been a State 
institution. 

After the Civil War, the University grew rapidly. 
In 1870 it was attended by nearly 500 students. An 
extensive reorganisation took place about this date, a 
feature of which was the admission of women as students 
of the University as well as men. The teaching of Law 
and Agriculture was undertaken, and many new buildings 
were erected. By 1901 the University had 2,600 
students, including more than 100 post-graduates. The 
most recent statistics for the University as a whole are as 
follows: — College of Letters and Science, 2241 ; College 
of Engineering, 781 ; College of Agriculture, 403; 
Law School, 159 ; School of Music, 143 ; Summer 
Session of 1909, 741 ; other enrolments (chiefly 
agriculture) 545. Total, 4,947.* The Graduate School 
numbers 281 students, who are distributed among the 
totals given above. " Officers of Instruction and 
Administration " number about 500. 

* " Catalogue of Wisconsin University," 1909-10. pp. 601-3. In arriving at 
the grand total, 66 is deducted from the total of students in the School of Music, 
since that number of students in the School were already enrolled in other 
Colleges of the University. 



WISCONSIN UNIVERSITY. 43 

The University is supported partly by the income of 
federal grants ; partly by taxation of the people of the 
State ; partly by students' fees ; and to a slight extent by 
private gifts. It represents the culmination of the free 
educational system of the State. In the educational 
policy of the State, the University sustains a similar 
relation to the high schools that the high schools sustain 
to the primary and grammar schools. The State through 
the University undertakes to furnish instruction in the 
various branches requisite for a liberal education, and in 
numerous technical branches also. Research, and the 
diffusion of knowledge outside the University among the 
people of the State, by means of an extension system, are 
also among the stated purposes of the University. The 
discipline of the University in relation to students appeals 
to the civic ideal ; and the University, as a State institution, 
is careful to avoid "all that is sectarian or partisan."* 

Wisconsin University occupies an excellent situation 
at Madison, which, though the capital of the State, is yet 
a town of modest proportions. The University grounds 
occupy 600 acres, and extend for upwards of a mile 
along the southern shores of Lake Mendota, a sheet of 
water about four miles wide and six miles long. The 
older buildings stand upon an eminence known as 
University Hill. The total number of University 
buildings used " for instructional purposes " is nineteen. 
As a group they are not effectively disposed upon the 
ground, but the fault may be due to unavoidable historical 
circumstances. Several of them, particularly the Library 
of the State Historical Society, are of imposing size and 
dignity. 

(2) The College of Agriculture. 

As already stated, an agricultural department was 
established at the University about 40 years ago. 
Students of the College of Agriculture are of the same 
standing as students of the other Colleges of the Univer- 
sity, and for certain purposes, e.g. in general sciences, 

* Most of the foregoing particulars are taken from the University Catalogue for 
1909-10. pp. 43-54, and pp. 601-3. 



44 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

languages, and mathematics, receive instruction with non- 
agricultural students. The buildings devoted to the 
College of Agriculture are seven in number : Agricultural 
Hall (which includes the administrative headquarters, an 
auditorium to hold 750, library, and several agricultural 
sciences); Hiram Smith Hall (Dairy Department), the 
Soils Building, the Horticultural Building, just completed, 
the Agronomy building, which includes a grain-judging 
room able to hold several hundred students ; the Agri- 
cultural Engineering Building ; and the Live Stock 
Pavilion. This last is a remarkable structure of concrete 
and brick. It includes an arena in the form of an ellipse 
66 by 164 feet, capable of seating 2,500. A system of 
moveable curtains enables the arena to be divided into 
sections. Beneath the amphitheatre-seats are 15 box 
stalls and 22 standing stalls for horses belonging to 
the University Farm. The Live Stock Pavilion has been 
erected in consequence of the large attendances of farmers 
at stock-judging competitions and at certain of the shorter 
courses in agriculture. As a group, the agricultural 
buildings are remarkably spacious and complete. 

(3) The Farm. 

There are two Farms : University Farm, adjacent 
to the campus, of 300 acres of land, and Hill Farm, 
two miles away, which includes about 290 acres 
devoted to experiments with farm crops, fertilizers, 
tillage, drainage, etc. The land is worked on a four- 
course rotation (i) Maize (2) Oats or Barley (3) Clover 
and Timothy Hay (4) Pasture. 

The Live Stock on the Farm includes : (a) Pigs : 
Berkshires, Tamworths, and Poland-Chinas, (b) Cattle: 
Jerseys, Guernseys, Ayrshires, and Holsteins. About 25 
cows are kept, and the net profit on them last year 
amounted lo £^\2 i 2s. a head, (c) Horses. Clydesdales 
and Percherons. 

(4) Qotirses of Instruction. 

These are numerous, and vary widely in duration 
and character. A few brief notes may be of interest : — 



WISCONSIN UNIVERSITY. 45 

(a) Five Day Course in Dairying, for Managers of 
Creameries or Cheese Factories. — A chief object is to 
bring to the notice of those attending the course any 
recent advances in dairying science. 

(b) Five Day Course in Home Economics, for 
Farmers' Wives. — Instruction is given in cooking, sewing, 
and nursing. 

(c) Ten Day Course in Agriculture for Farmers. 
— The course is given in February, a convenient time for 
farmers, and aims at being popular and useful. One 
principal topic is selected, such as milk-production, beef- 
production, or cereal husbandry. The hours of work 
are from 8.30 a.m. till 12, and from 2 till 4. In the 
evening there is a demonstration, or a lecture or discussion 
on a topic of general interest. The course has been a 
notable success. 

(d) Ten Weeks Summer Dairy Course, intended for 
beginners. 

(e) Twelve Weeks Winter Dairy Course, intended 
for persons who have had at least six months' experience 
in a creamery or cheese factory, and desire to become 
creamery buttermakers and factory cheesemakers. 

(f) Short Course in Agriculture, occupying two 
winter terms of 14 weeks each. — It is intended for those 
engaged in farming who can devote only a part of the year 
to study. During the first term, the period from 8 a.m. to 
12 is devoted daily to lectures and class work in Crops, 
Horticulture, Live Stock, Dairying, Soils, Agricultural 
Chemistry, Business Methods, and Agricultural Engin- 
eering. Two hours every afternoon are assigned to practical 
work in the Dairy, Stock Judging, and the Shops, a third 
of the term being devoted to each of these branches in 
turn. During the second term, the morning period is 
given to Live Stock, Veterinary Science, Poultry, 
Bacteriology, Business Methods, Farm Management, and 
Agricultural Engineering. The afternoon period is given 
for half the term to Crops or Horticulture, and for the 
other half to Soils or Live Stock. 



46 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

(g) Middle Course in Agriculture, extending over 
two years and leading to a certificate. — During the first 
year about i6 hours a week are spent in English, 
Chemistry, Agricultural Electives, Crops, Live Stock, 
Agricultural Engineering, and Dairying. The same time 
weekly is occupied during the second year with Biology, 
Bacteriology, Horticulture, Live Stock, Agricultural 
Electives, Agricultural Chemistry, Agricultural Bacteri- 
ology, and Soils. There are two terms in each year and 
the subjects are studied in a prescribed order. "Considerable 
work in the basal sciences is required to lay a foundation 
for the distinctively agricultural work." Two hours 
gymnastics and two hours drill, weekly, are compulsory 
additions to the time table. 

(h) Long Course (four years degree course) in 
Agriculture. — The aim here is scientific training, the 
field of study is very wide, and much liberty of selection 
is permitted. During the first and second years the work 
is the same as for the Middle Course, except that in the 
first year Electives are replaced by German, and in the 
second year by Chemistry and Mathematics. In the 
third year the weekly time table covers 162 hours as 
follows: Physics (5), Botany (3), Agricultural Economics 
(2J), Agricultural Electives (6). In the fourth year a 
" major line of study," including a thesis, occupies 5 hours; 
a " minor line of study," including a thesis, 5 hours ; and 
3 Electives 6 hours. Total, 16 hours weekly. No student 
is given the degree who cannot show that he has devoted 
at least six months to practical farm work. 

The Long Course was instituted in 1876, but for 
twenty years there were never more than ten students 
attending it. In 1902 the numbers had not risen above 
36. Up to this date the course was regarded as in great 
measure a failure, and the reason assigned was that the 
first stages of the work were entirely devoted to pure 
science. Hence in 1902 two noteworthy modifications 
were introduced. In the first place, much of the pure 
science was postponed to the later stages of the course, and 
secondly students who desired to stay at the College for 



WISCONSIN UNIVERSITY. 47 

two years only were taken separately from those who 
were prepared to stay four years. Further, in 1908, the 
course for the two year students was modified to form the 
Middle Course. These changes have resulted in a marked 
increase in the attendance at both courses. The Dean of 
the Faculty of Agriculture (Professor H. L. Russell) 
emphasised as conditions of successful agricultural instruc- 
tion (of the type under consideration) that all students 
should begin to study agricultural subjects at the beginning 
of their course, and that Short Course students and Long 
Course students should be taught separately. It should, 
however, be observed that the latter point has a special 
urgency in American Colleges where the numbers to be 
dealt with are usually very large. 

(j) Post-graduates. — The line of study is left largely 
to the selection of the student, subject to the approval 
of the agricultural faculty. " When contributions to 
knowledge of permanent value are made they may be 
published through the bulletins of the Experiment Station 
with proper credit to the contributor." 

(5) Fees. 

Students who are resident in Wisconsin State pay 
nothing for tuition. Other students pay ^10 per annum. 
There are small charges for laboratory and similar expenses 
which do not exceed £6 per annum. Board and lodging 
expenses vary between ^i and £2 weekly. 

(6) Staf. 

The Staff consists of about 50 persons, of whom 
nearly 20 are Professors. The majority combine teaching 
with research, but it would appear that the burden of 
teaching in some cases is making research impossible. 
Professor S. M. Babcock, Ph. D., LL.D., widely known 
as the inventor of the test for butter fat, holds the posts 
of Assistant Director and Chief Chemist of the 
Agricultural Experiment Station, and of Professor of 
Agricultural Chemistry. His invention in 1890 gave a 
great impetus to the Dairy courses of instruction, for in the 



48 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

following year i oo students came for the express purpose 
of studying his methods. 

(7) Statistics of Students. 

The numbers attending all the courses of instruction 
in the College of Agriculture are steadily rising. The 
following figures relate to the year 1909-10 : 



Long Course - 
Middle Course 
Short Course 
Dairy Course 
Farmers' Course 
Women's Course 


(first year) 


267 

67 

461 

100 

- 825 

450 




2,170 



In 1908-9 there were 24 Post-graduate students. 

(8) Conditions of ^Admission. 

Before entrance to the Long or Middle Courses, a 
certificate from a recognised High School must be presented, 
or an examination must be passed. For the Short Course, 
a student must be 16 years of age, and have had an 
adequate public school education. Persons who are 2 1 
years of age and of approved capacity, and graduates from 
other Universities, may be admitted as students in order 
to engage in special lines of work. 

(9) '^ I at ions 'Voith the Government. 

The University, as already mentioned, is a State 
institution, and it is regarded by the State as the authority 
on all agricultural questions. All legislation dealing with 
agricultural technicalities is drafted in consultation with 
the agricultural staff, and the latter are concerned, through 
their extension system, in seeing that the law is observed. 
Examples are the laws relating to foods and fertilisers, 
seeds, stallions, and the inspection of nursery stock before 
sale. The University is thus directly associated with State 
administration, and it undoubtedly gains status with the 



WISCONSIN UNIVERSITY. 49 

public for this reason. On the other hand, the State gains 
by the practice of calling to its aid the trained and 
specialised knowledge which is possessed by the University. 

( I o) '^eiatmis Voith Farmers and the 'Public. 

Wisconsin University is remarkable for the numerous 
and close relations which it has established with farmers 
throughout the State. Farmers attend the short courses 
of instruction by the hundred, and visit the experimental 
plots, &c., by the thousand. Moreover, the University 
has organised an elaborate Extension Division, of the 
activities of which a brief outline may be given : — 

(a) Correspondence Courses. — The 35 departments 
of the University provide between them 200 different 
courses of instruction. As far as may be, correspondents 
are grouped into district classes, and the instructors visit 
classes at regular intervals at convenient centres. The 
work began in 1906, and by 1908 there were iioo 
students. About half of them pursue courses in technical 
work, science, languages, history, and music. Engineering 
claims 400 students. About 350 students are doing work 
which is considered to be of University grade. The 
students are of all ages and social conditions. At Milwaukee, 
the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association, recognising 
the value of the correspondence work, have afforded their 
employees special facilities for entering the courses. 

(b) Extension Lecture Courses. — The development 
of this branch has been retarded through lack of funds. 

(c) Debating and Public Discussion Department. 
— The aim here is to stimulate interest in public questions 
of importance. Debates and discussions are organised, 
and advisory leaflets and bulletins are issued. 

(d) Department of General Information and 
Welfare. — The function in this case is two-fold : — 
(i) Information is collected, from other States and 
countries, relating to modern researches and discoveries. 
This information is distributed in a popular form to the 
Wisconsin public. (2) The Department assists localities 
in solving particular problems. For example, 120 bakers 



50 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

combined to request the LTniversity to assist them in 
regard to their special problems, and undertook to attend 
any lectures or demonstrations that might be organised. 
The University replied by building a Bakers' Institute 
where technical difficulties are investigated as they arise 
by experts obtained for the purpose. 

It is hoped ultimately to divide the State into eleven 
extension districts, in each of which shall be a resident 
representative of the University. Each Centre should 
possess or be connected with a library, and should be able 
to add a laboratory, and other requisites, according to the 
needs of the locality. 

( 1 1 ) The 'Experimental dAs so elation. 

Just as the Extension Division connects the 
University with the general public, so the Experimental 
Association connects it with the trained farmers. 
Membership is restricted to past members of the Uni- 
versity, and so greatly is membership prized that students 
have been known to join the University in order to qualify 
for the Association. The object in view is to develop 
Wisconsin as a great seed-producing* area, from which 
other States and other countries may draw much of their 
seed supply. At the University good strains of maize and 
grain are carefully selected or bred, and these are sold to 
members at current market prices. Members are grouped 
into " County Orders," each of which has its own 
Secretary, who must keep in close touch with his 
members and with the University. He receives a small 
stipend, and his expenses for each day on duty. One of 
his duties is to visit each member twice a year. If a 
member is found to be farming badly, and so not to be 
maintaining the standard of seed, he forfeits membership 
of the Association. By means of this organisation very 
large orders for seed can be dealt with, and the Association, 
acting through the University, already has a very large 
trade with other States in the Union, with China, with 
Japan, and with Europe. The influence of the agricultural 

* i.e., maize and grain. 



WISCONSIN UNIVERSITY. 51 

teaching of the University is also notable in regard to the 
dairying industry. In 1890 the value of the dairying 
industry in Wisconsin State w^as five million dollars, and 
at that date many irregular trade practices were in vogue. 
In 19 10, the value stands at seventy million dollars, and 
carefully-framed laws guard against adulteration. One 
half of the cheese factories of the United States, and one 
sixth of the butter factories, are now situated in the State 
of Wisconsin. 



52 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

B. 

Observations upon Agricultural Education in 
England and in America. 

Introductory. 

There are some general conclusions with respect to 
the teaching of agriculture in America which must strike 
the reader of the foregoing pages no less forcibly than 
ourselves who had the advantage of visiting the institutions 
described. Whatever estimate may be formed of the 
standards and performances of the Universities of Canada 
and of the United States, it is impossible either to dispute 
or to disregard their magnitude of scale, their energy of 
enterprise, or their success in result. There is, for 
example, no agricultural institution in this country which 
is housed and equipped like Macdonald, none which can 
show a roll of students and post-graduates like that of 
Guelph, Cornell, or Wisconsin, none which is based upon 
a contact and alliance with farmers such as that which 
flourishes at Wisconsin or Guelph, and none which can 
produce a record of material assistance to the agriculture 
of the region like that of Wisconsin. The buildings at 
Macdonald cost most of a million sterling, and were the 
gift of one man. Cornell possesses more serious students 
of agriculture than all the English Colleges together.* 
Throughout the vast agricultural areas of Ontario and 
Wisconsin, Guelph and Wisconsin University respectively 
are farm-house names ; and thousands of farmers, judging 
shrewdly from experience, look to them for guidance and 
instruction. And it has been shewn in the preceding 
pages how the unrivalled position of Wisconsin in the 
production of cheese and butter is the direct outcome of 
scientific teaching happily wedded to prudent legislation. 
If any one still doubts these things, and deems it worth 
while to go on repeating the sceptical question " Can 

* From the returns given in the Annual Report on the Colleges by the Board of 
Agriculture, IQIO, [Cd. 5388], it would appear that the number of such students 
in 1908-9 at 12 institutions (exclusive of the Royal Veterinary College) was 
about 500. The latest figures for a similar class of student are at Cornell, 597 ; 
at Guelph, 475 ; at Wisconsin, 358. 



THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE. 53 

agriculture be taught ? " our advice is that he should 
go to Canada and the United States and see the thing 
done, and done upon a great scale. Even the narrow field 
which has been surveyed in this Report is amply 
sufficient to demonstrate the untiring energy and confidence 
and the remarkable success with which, both in Canada 
and in the United States, trained intelligence and scientific 
knowledge are brought to bear upon the problems of 
agriculture and of rural society. This is the first broad 
and outstanding conclusion. In our view it is better to 
fix attention upon this stimulating lesson rather than to 
indulge in sterile debate whether or not all the agricultural 
activities which we saw at work in America can properly 
be described as of a University character, or to attempt 
the invidious task of estimating and comparing the 
relative values of the agricultural experiments and research 
carried on in America and in our own country. 

There is, of course, no novelty in this recognition 
of the vigorous effectiveness of the agricultural instruction 
given in Canada and in the United States. Members of 
the Deputation were told, even before they left England, 
that they would return with this view strongly impressed 
upon them. They were also told, not less authoritatively, 
that the example of America would be of no service as a 
guide to the solution of problems at home, for the simple 
reason that the conditions of the two cases are quite 
different. This dictum cannot be accepted. Yet it 
contains an important element of truth. There are 
undoubted and far-reaching differences between the 
problem of agricultural instruction in America and the 
problem in this country. It will repay us to consider 
these carefully, before proceeding to offer specific 
suggestions. 

Differences in the Conditions of Agricultural 
Education in England and in America. 

(a) Climate. 

The primary differentiating factor is climate. Hot 
summers and severe and prolonged winters characterise 



54 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

the region traversed by the Deputation. These natural 
conditions affect the whole of agricultural practice, 
including tillage, the selection of crops, the breeds of 
live-stock, their feeding and housing, the dates and 
seasons of the year's agricultural routine. Moreover, 
climate has an important bearing upon the organisation of 
instruction. It is at once evident that it governs more 
directly than in England the period assigned to University 
sessions. Practically the Universities and Colleges of 
America are in session during the winter, from October 
to April or May, and in vacation during the rest of 
the year. This arrangement accords well with the 
circumstances of the agricultural student, the farmer's son, 
and the young farmer. He is able to spend in the class- 
room and laboratory, more conveniently than would be 
the case in England, the long winter period during which 
in Canada and America most agricultural work is at a 
standstill ; while in the summer he goes home to help on 
the farm, at a time of ceaseless pressure, and to gain there 
— or possibly on the farm of a stranger — several months' 
experience in farm work, which is an invaluable corollary 
to the University training of the winter. Owing, 
therefore, to climatic diiferences alone, agriculture across 
the Atlantic is not the same as agriculture at home, while 
the same differences make it more easy for farmers in 
Canada and in the United States to send their sons to 
study at agricultural colleges. 

* Table 3 5 of the General Report on the Census of 1901 (England and 

Wales) gives the following statistics : — 

Persons engaged in Agriculture — ' (Thousands) Total 



Males ... ... ... 1 1 59 

Females ... ... ... 39 

Persons engaged in Mines and Quarries — 

Males ... ... ... 800 

Females ... ... ... 5 

Persons engaged in Metals, Machines, Implements, and 
Conveyances — 

Males ... ... ... 1167 

Females ... .. ... 61 

Persons engaged in Building and Works of Construction — 

Males ... ... ... 1 126 

Females ... ... ... 2 



(Thousands) 



505 



122! 



ECONOMIC POSITION OF AGRICULTURE. 55 

(2) Economic 'Position of ^Agriculture. 

Related to climatic conditions is the wide contrast 
in the economic position of agriculture. Agriculture is 
no longer the predominant economic interest of England. 
The claim that it employs more persons than any other 
single industry no longer passes without challenge ; * 
although in the consideration and esteem accorded 
to it by public opinion on social and traditional 
grounds it is still easily supreme. Nevertheless, the 
wealth of England, the prosperity of her people, her 
economic position as compared with that of other 
nations, are no longer primarily dependent upon her 
agriculture. The opposite is the case with Canada, and 
with vast regions of the United States. Nature has there 
reserved enormous areas of land for the farmer. In districts 
of older occupation, such as Ontario and Wisconsin, 
farmers are counted by the thousand. As yet, the tide 
of immigration has done little more than touch the fringe 
of the new lands of western Canada. Everywhere in 
these regions agriculture is the mainstay of prosperity, 
for the individual and for the community. Remove it, 
and the economic structure of society collapses. The 
great cities, such as Toronto and Chicago, even though 
their commercial opportunities and their social glitter 
attract population from the districts around them, ultimately 
owe their prosperity, or most of it, to agriculture. This 
economic supremacy of agriculture has many consequences, 
of which only one need be named here. In Canada, and 
in those parts of the United States visited by the Deputation, 



Persons engaged in Textile Fabrics — 



(Thousands) Total 

(Thousands) 



Males ... ... ... 492 . j.rr 

Females ... ... ... 663 J " 



1 127 



Workers and Dealers in Dress — 

Males ... ... ... 415 

Females ... ... ... 712 

The total number of persons over ten years of age "engaged inoccupations" was, 
in thousands, Males 10,157 ; Females, 4,172. Total, 14,329. The proportion 
of those engaged in Agriculture was, therefore, approximately, one-twelfth of 
the whole number. 



56 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

agriculture figures so largely in the public eye, it is a 
business fact of such paramount importance to 
governments, and the scale and theatre of its operations 
are so vast and so rapidly extending, that it is regarded 
as a career with a confidence not found in the old 
country, while the conditions of its successful study 
and pursuit are considered no less worthy of attention than 
those relating to Medicine, Engineering, and Law. This 
is a difference which can only be expressed in general 
terms, but it produces remarkable results both here and in 
America. 

(3) ^^li^tive scope of JJnher skies and conditions of their 
success. 
Problems of agricultural policy in America differ 
from our own because they are the problems of youthful 
communities. It is the fashion to flatter American energy 
and to decry British deliberateness, and probably in each case 
the fashion is overdone. The atmosphere of the western 
continent may or may not have the bracing properties 
claimed for it. But undoubtedly the visitor finds there 
a keenness and a confidence in regard to public enterprise 
which makes light of obstacles, and is in itself a harbinger 
of success. The consciousness of rapid material progress 
in the past, of almost boundless opportunities for 
progress in the future, generates the sanguine temperament 
and a readiness to try experiments, which is much less 
characteristic of older communities, and is altogether favour- 
able to educational enterprise. Thus Sir William Macdonald 
plans and builds for a future which is to him not a dim 
speculation, but a certainty: students everywhere are 
keen to equip themselves with university training, even 
if they can only raise money to pay for it by working in 
vacations as farm-hands, stewards, waitresses, clerks, or 
miners; a Canadian mayor rejoices that the education 
rate of his city is the highest in the Dominion ; and the 
Legislatures of New York State or of Wisconsin will not 
hesitate to invest large sums of public money in establishing 
Universities to educate their youth for the tasks of the 
future. Moreover, this confident purpose enjoys a 



UNIVERSITIES IN AMERICA &IN ENGLAND. ^1 

freedom of opportunity which is pecuHar to a youthful 
society. In England, the reformer, whatever his school 
or his aim, is faced by an intricate, mature, and deeply- 
rooted established order. Very early in his career he 
becomes familiar with the significance of vested interests, 
rival agencies and efforts, conflicting jurisdictions, prior 
claims, and an indisposition springing from manifold 
causes to accept change or novelty either in idea or in 
fact. These things and the type of difficulty which they 
suggest are not absent from America: and some of them 
may even be abnormally active there. But generally 
speaking the ground is much clearer there than here for 
constructive educational effort. There are fewer things 
in the way. A new University in America, for example, 
if it is reasonably conducted, has a much simpler task in 
winning recognition for its mission and its claims at the 
bar of public opinion than a new University in England. 
The reason is not necessarily because public opinion here 
has a superior idea of what a University ought to be. It 
is rather because a new University set down in a young 
social order, fills a visible and felt need, while in England, 
though the need may be equally great, society is less 
conscious of it and is inured to its neglect. In America 
the University is quickly seized upon as the nucleus, 
sometimes developing with amazing swiftness, of an 
educational armament of the most diversified description. 
Scrutinise, for example, the activities of the Extension 
Division of Wisconsin University, and it will at once 
be apparent that the University function is not confined 
by conventional boundaries, and that a variety of work is 
undertaken which in England would be declined, often 
because it was already being done by existing agencies. 
America, in short, regards a University as a lever to be 
used in very numerous ways to advance the interests of 
civiUsation. It is hardly too much to say that university 
education is often interpreted as including anything in the 
intellectual sphere which is beyond the school-stage. We 
may dislike an interpretation of this laxity; but we 
cannot deny that, thanks to the catholic range of its 
activities only possible in equal measure on the clear 



58 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

stage of a young community, a University in America 
has an excellent opportunity of impressing popular opinion 
with the useful character of its services. It follows, 
moreover, that because the University is so conspicuous 
a unit in the intellectual organisation of society, and 
because its work ministers so directly to public needs, 
there is far less hesitation in Canada and in the United 
States than in England about the propriety of liberal State 
aid. Moreover, the political organisation of Canada and 
of the United States relieves the question of State aid of 
some of the difficulties which exist in this country. The 
English Board of Agriculture, for example, is believed to 
find difficulty in increasing the grants in aid of one or 
two Colleges without shewing similar liberality to the 
rest ; whereas in the United States the College or 
University not only shares in the general grants of the 
Federal Government, but it monopolises the benevolence 
of its own State. It is not millionaires alone who have 
backed the Universities of those countries. Democracy 
has backed them too. Guelph is State-made ; the 
agricultural college at Cornell is State-made ; the whole 
of Wisconsin University is State-made. State control is 
liable to peculiar dangers, which cannot be discussed 
here. The points to be emphasized are that the 
Universities of Canada and the United States can run a 
course clearer than is possible to new Universities in 
older countries; that they are able to concentrate in their 
hands a variety of educational functions elsewhere 
distributed or declined; and that they gain a peculiar 
prestige because they are welcomed, used, and fostered 
by the State as instruments and allies of the first value in 
promoting the general welfare of society. The liberality 
of State support explains many of the contrasts between 
the progress of advanced agricultural education in 
America and its progress here. Take the instance of 
tuition fees. At Macdonald, the student from the 
Province of Quebec receives free tuition for his first two 
years. At Guelph, the fees of an Ontario student are 
greatly reduced. At Cornell and Wisconsin the local 
student is exempt from tuition fees altogether. 



FARMERS IN AMERICA & IN ENGLAND. 59 

(4) Ability and Attitude of Farmers. 

One circumstance in particular will be held, in the 
opinion of competent judges, to differentiate more 
markedly than anything yet mentioned the problems 
of agricultural instruction in America from those which 
confront us here. This circumstance relates to the 
capacity of the farmer, and to his attitude to agricultural 
education. English farmers have no rivals in the 
world. They have been bred for generations from the 
best agricultural classes. They know thoroughly the 
details of farm practice, and they have very firmly rooted 
views upon the subject. They inherit a traditional 
experience and skill enabling them to produce unrivalled 
results, both in crops and in stock. It is therefore very 
difficult to convince them that anyone who is not a farmer 
can teach them anything, or that any preparation for an 
agricultural career can be of serious value except that 
which is gained under the direction of a practical farmer 
in the school of hard-won experience. The farmer has 
not, perhaps, been particularly impressed by the quality 
of some of the agricultural instructors who perambulate 
the counties. Only very able specialists can hope to meet 
with real success as extension instructors, and again and 
again the slow progress of extension activities has been 
due to a disastrous disregard of this fundamental truth. 
To the farmer, again, with his proper respect for practice, 
it appears that the agricultural professor is too often in 
bondage to theory. He has not always found the 
experimental work conducted by agricultural colleges 
very illuminating or convincing ; nor is he always aware 
of what is being done in those institutions, or indeed by 
farmers in other parts of the country. He both suffers and 
gains from the independence of isolation. And lastly any 
programme of agricultural education comes to him dis- 
advantageously because the whole subject of education is 
associated in his mind with burdensome county rates. 
Hence the progress of agricultural education in 
England has been delayed for these reasons, and 
especially by the fact that English farmers are not 



6o AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

exempt from the prejudices which in part at least are the 
outcome of their competence. Yet a great change would 
come over their general attitude if two plain truths could 
be driven home. The first is that the marvellous progress 
of English farming during the last two centuries has been 
mainly due to agricultural education, which itself resulted 
from the labours of men of science and experimenters 
many of whom were not successful practical farmers. 
For example, the methods of drilling and horse-hoeing 
introduced by Jethro Tull of Berkshire early in the 
eighteenth century, and based upon a close study of plant 
life, were vehemently denounced by the practical farmers 
of the day, but they have since been generally adopted. 
Few men did more for English agriculture than Arthur 
Young and yet, having failed twice in practical farming, 
he appeared to many of his contemporaries as an 
educational faddist. Townshend's experiments revolution- 
ised the rotation of crops ; and Bakewell changed greatly 
the character of the chief breeds of live-stock. Thrashing 
machinery owed its introduction to individual experi- 
menters ; and a Scotch farmer with a turn for science 
first gave the impetus to the application of chemical 
science to manuring and to other branches of agricultural 
practice. " The work of Liebig, Gilbert, and Lawes 
in one direction only — the feeding of the plant — 
has resulted in the use of fertilisers drawn either from 
fossil deposits or manufacturing waste products that has 
brought up the yield of our crops to an entirely new 
level. Lawes reports that the average crop of wheat in 
his district at the beginning of his experiments was about 
twenty bushels per acre ; to-day it is over thirty bushels. 
Of course it is not only fertilisers that have done this. 
Scientific method has also been applied to the machines 
which cultivate the soil, to the breeds of plants growing 
there, and to the eradication of the diseases from which 
they suffer."* Other examples could be quoted, but so 
demonstrable a proposition as the value of science to 
agriculture need not be laboured. 

*Address to Sub-Section F (Agriculture), British Association, Dublin, 1908, by 
the Right Hon. Sir Horace Plunkett, K.C.V.O., F.R.S., p. 4. 



FARMERS IN AMERICA & IN ENGLAND. 6 1 

The second point is that farmers often misunder- 
stand the object of an agricultural college. It is 
not easy to convince a farmer that no agricultural 
college really proposes to manufacture farmers. The 
business of the agricultural college is to give men a 
training which shall stand them in good stead w^hen 
they come to manage farms, and more especially, to 
instruct them in modern methods. It cannot give the 
experience necessary to success. The farming public 
retains a good deal of scepticism upon all these points, 
though there is satisfactory evidence that its attitude 
towards agricultural education and agricultural colleges is 
gradually becoming more favourable. The Departmental 
Committee appointed by the Board of Agriculture and 
Fisheries to investigate agricultural education in England 
and Wales, stated in their Report [Cd. 4206] published 
in 1908, that evidence submitted to them showed "in an 
unmistakable manner that the attitude of farmers on the 
subject has undergone, or is undergoing, a change." 
(p. 11). Even so, the Report confesses that the majority 
of farmers have not been reached by the agricultural 
colleges at all, and quotes the declaration of an 
important witness " that the colleges, however well 
conducted, do not at present directly affect more than 
5 per cent, of the farmers of England." (p. 12) If such 
a statement is at all justified, it is almost superfluous to 
remark that, whatever may be the reasons, advanced or 
scientific training in agriculture has yet to win the 
confidence of the English farmer. 

But it has won the confidence of the farmers of 
America. No fact more deeply impresses the visitor to 
the Colleges of Canada and the United States. He sees 
agricultural colleges full of students ; agricultural colleges 
helping the farmer at every turn ; and farmers believing 
in and valuing the colleges. It is hoped that the general 
tenor of these observations may throw some light upon the 
causes of this most significant — and, for Englishmen, 
disturbing — contrast. But undoubtedly one main cause 
of it is that in America it is much easier to help the 



62 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

farmer than it is in England. It is easier because the 
standards of farming are less high, and because the capacity 
of the average farmer is less complete. To say this is by 
no means to minimise the remarkable ability with which 
American Colleges have addressed themselves to their 
task, which is indeed beset by other and peculiar diffi- 
culties not experienced in this country. But the fact is 
to be recognised that the Colleges of Canada and the 
United States have to deal with farmers who differ in 
quality and in mental attitude from those of this country. 
Many of them have had little previous experience 
of country life : a large proportion indeed have 
come directly from the towns. Consequently they 
have neither the skill nor the knowledge of English 
farmers, nor the same confidence in themselves. 
Hence the problem of helping them is simplified. The 
conditions of a new life in a new country stimulate a 
habit of inquiry and a readiness to learn, and the 
continual stream of settlers from abroad or from other 
parts of the continent, bringing with them a varied stock 
of ideas and experience, tends to keep the farming 
community in a receptive frame of mind. Finally, the 
old protector of ignorance — the system of using up the 
land and then moving to fresh areas — is rapidly becoming 
impossible. The farmer is faced with the problem of 
maintaining the fertility of his land. He needs help, and 
he knows it. For these reasons the scientific agriculturist, 
the expert, and the agricultural college have an opportunity 
in Canada and in the United States more favourable than 
that which exists in this country. The admirable use 
which they have made of it has further strengthened their 
hold upon farming opinion. 

(5) Value of American experience in agricultural education. 
Scope of '•Practical Suggestions. 

We have now touched upon the chief circumstances 
which differentiate the problem of agricultural instruction 
in America from the same problem in this country. We 
have referred to the climatic differences, the contrast in the 
economic position of agriculture, the larger freedom of 



VALUE OF AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. 63 

opportunity enjoyed by Universities in younger commun- 
ities, the relative capacities of the farmers, and their 
attitude in regard to agricultural instruction. In our 
opinion the sum total of these differences is considerable, 
and such as to prohibit the hasty application to English 
problems of generalisations derived from the study of 
American examples. But upon the other hand, apart 
from these differentiating circumstances, the object 
of agricultural instruction in all three countries is the 
same. It is to help the farmer, to improve agriculture, to 
invigorate country life. It appears to us to be unreasonable 
to dismiss as irrelevant and useless the immense and 
successful experience which has been accumulated in 
pursuit of these aims in Canada and in the United States. 
Even if it were true that we have nothing to learn from 
their methods, we should still have to admit, with or 
without reluctance, that we have a great deal to learn 
from their spirit. With this conviction we have recorded 
our impressions of the institutions visited, and of their 
work and policy ; and in now proceeding to develop our 
ideas about agricultural teaching at home, we shall 
frequently refer to the lessons to be learned from Canada 
and the United States. 

The Deputation was appointed by the Council of 
University College, Reading, with the primary object of 
presenting a Report which should be of assistance in 
developing the agricultural department of that institution. 
Though we hope that some of our notes and observations 
may be of interest and use to other institutions concerned 
with similar work, it appears to us that in putting forward 
any practical suggestions we should keep in view, in the first 
instance at least, the special circumstances of the College 
at Reading. This Report will fall into the hands of many 
persons who have only a slight acquaintance with the 
existing work of the College in agriculture and horticulture; 
and therefore, mainly for the information of such readers 
and to secure a complete statement of the whole problem 
raised for our consideration, it will be useful at this point 
to set forth briefly what that work is. 



64 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



Department of Agriculture and Horticulture at 
University College, Reading. 

( I ) General. 

University College, Reading, was founded in 1892, 
and incorporated in 1896. Since an inspection by the 
Treasury Commissioners in 1901, the College has held 
the rank of a University College. Of recent years the 
Faculties of Letters and Science, which compose the 
central part of the College, have grown rapidly, and there 
are now, for example, nearly 1 20 students reading for the 
degrees (external) of B.A. and B.Sc. of London University. 
The College was re-established in 1905 in new buildings 
upon a new and extensive site. There are Departments 
of Fine Arts, Music, Commerce, and Evening Classes, in 
addition to the Department of Agriculture, formed in 
1893 upon a basis of grants from the Board of Agriculture 
and from County Councils. The teaching of Horticulture 
was added in 1902, and in 1903 a farm was purchased. 
A Committee, representative of Oxford University, the 
Royal Agricultural Society, the Royal Horticultural 
Society, and the College awards diplomas in Agriculture, 
Horticulture, and Dairying. Since 1896, the Dairy 
Institute of the British Dairy Farmers' Association has been 
established in Reading. The Institute is the property of 
the College, was moved to the new College site in 1909, 



UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, READING. 65 

is managed by a Joint Committee representing the College 
and the Association, and is conducted in intimate association 
with the Agricultural Department, which it adjoins. The 
first grant by the Board of Agriculture in aid of agricultural 
teaching at Reading was given in 1894, and amounted to 
£1^0. The sum was increased until in 1897 ^^ reached 
;r8oo. In 1905, the supplementary grant of ^C^oo, 
granted to all recognised institutions which acquire a 
College Farm, was received ; but otherwise the volume 
of government aid to agricultural education at Reading 
has remained stationary for thirteen years. In the summer 
of 19 10, however, the Board signified their intention 
of giving the College a special grant in aid of Horticulture ; 
the amount of the grant is not at present (November, 19 10) 
known. A separate grant of >C300 a year is paid by the 
Board to the British Dairy Institute Joint Committee in 
respect of the Institute's work. The County Council 
grants received by the College — from Reading, Berkshire, 
Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hampshire — are 
relatively small. They amount in all to less than /^2,ooo 
annually, and of this sum only a portion is available for 
Agriculture. Unfortunately, the general revenue of the 
College is by no means in a condition to bear the burden 
consequently imposed upon it. 

(2) Buildings. 

The buildings devoted exclusively to the purpose of 
the Department are not extensive. They consist of a 
separate block, erected in 1905-6, which contains class- 
rooms, bacteriological, botanical (agricultural), and chemical 
(agricultural) laboratories, Director's office, and one or 
two private rooms for other members of stafi^. Immediately 
adjoining is the British Dairy Institute. The Institute 
contains milk-receiving, butter-making, and milk-testing 
rooms ; rooms for the manufacture of pressed, unpressed, 
and soft cheeses ; and ripening rooms for the different 
varieties of cheese. It is equipped with the best modern 
apparatus for the manufacture of dairy produce, including 
power-driven separating and butter-making plant, a steam 
turbine separator, and cold storage plant. 



66 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

It should be borne in mind that the general buildings 
of the College, including the Hall, Library, and Common 
Rooms, and the laboratories (Chemistry, Botany, Physics, 
Zoology, and Commerce) are used by the students of the 
Department. 

(3) Farm^ Fruit Station^ and gardens. 

The Farm, 141 acres in extent, is situated at Shinfield, 
two and a half miles from the College. The soil is 
somewhat varied, and is capable of growing all the 
common crops. The rotation is adapted mainly for the 
production of milk, all of which is at present taken by 
the Dairy Institute. In addition to 1 1 acres laid out as a 
Fruit Station, there are 60 acres of arable, 60 acres of grass, 
7 acres of wood, and 3 acres of buildings. In addition to 
buildings already existing when the College came into 
possession, new farm buildings and cottages have 
been erected. A field of about 8K acres is reserved 
for agricultural experiments. A member of the staff, 
who holds the rank of Lecturer in Agriculture, resides 
upon the Farm and superintends its management, while 
a general supervision is exercised by a Farm Committee 
appointed by the Council of University College. 

Adjoining the main College site is a tract of 4 acres 
which is devoted to practical Horticulture. It consists of 
vegetable and flower-gardens and orchard, and is provided 
with sheds for potting and packing, an office, a demonstra- 
tion room, a workshop, and a fruit store. It contains a 
large number of pits and frames and 15 glass-houses 
(greenhouses, vineries, peach house, etc.). Intensive 
cultivation of early vegetables is carried on in a portion of 
the ground equipped with bell-glasses. 

(4) Qourses of Instruction. 

The following courses of instruction are provided : — 

(a) Degree course in Agriculture. — The course, which 
extends over a minimum period of three years, is in 
preparation for the Intermediate and Final Examinations 
of the B.Sc. degree (external) in Agriculture of the 
University of London. 



UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, READING. 67 

(b) Diploma of Associateship Course in Agriculture. — 
This is a two years' course (two sessions of 30 weeks 
each) designed for those who may hereafter become 
tenant farmers, farm managers, land agents, or landlords. 
The first year is spent chiefly in the study of the sciences 
upon which the practice of Agriculture is founded. 
Instruction is also given in Agriculture proper by lectures 
and practical demonstrations on the Farm, in Surveying, 
and in Book-keeping. In the second year, the student is 
instructed in the application of these sciences to Agri- 
culture, as well as in the more advanced details of farm 
management. Practical work in the British Dairy 
Institute is included, and competence in prescribed 
manual farm operations is required. A Diploma with 
Distinction is awarded to students who, having passed the 
examinations for the Diploma in Agriculture, spend a 
third year at the College in pursuing special studies in 
Agriculture, and pass an examination in connexion there- 
with. 

(c) Diploma of Associateship Course in Horticul- 
ture. — This is a two years' course (two sessions of 40 
weeks' each) designed for those who intend to take up 
Horticulture as a career. It provides training in the 
sciences on which the practice of Horticulture is based, 
in the growing and marketing of vegetables, flowers and 
fruit, and in Book-keeping. Students spend upwards of 
20 hours a week in the gardens. A Diploma with 
Distinction is awarded under conditions similar to those 
attaching to the Diploma with Distinction in Agriculture. 

(d) The Certificate Course in Agriculture. — This 
course extends over six months (October to March) and 
provides instruction in Agriculture and in elementary science 
as applied to Agriculture. It is designed primarily for 
farmers' sons, who having had practical experience of 
farm work, are desirous of devoting one winter to the 
systematic study of Agriculture. 

(e) The Certificate Course in Horticulture. — This 
course occupies one year, and is of a more practical and 
technical nature than the Diploma Course. 



68 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

(f ) Courses in Dairying. These are : — 

(i) Diploma Course in Dairying. — This course 
occupies two years and includes scientific and practical 
dairying. It is designed for those who hereafter may be 
teachers of dairying, managers of dairy farms, or creamery 
managers. 

(2) Certificate Course in Dairying. — This course, 
which occupies one year, is a preparation for the Diploma 
of the British Dairy Farmers' Association, or for the 
National Diploma in Dairying, as well as for the College 
Certificate. 

(3) Shorter Courses in Dairying occupy six months 
or three months. — These are conducted by the Dairy 
Institute and the College, are mainly of a practical 
character, and conclude with examinations upon which the 
certificate of the British Dairy Farmers' Association may 
be gained. 

(5) »# 

The Staff consists of a Director, a Professor of 
Agricultural Botany and an Assistant, two Lecturers in 
Agriculture (one of whom resides at the College Farm), 
a Lecturer and Analyst in Agricultural Chemistry, a 
Lecturer in Veterinary Hygiene, a Lecturer and Practical 
Instructor in Horticulture, and an Assistant. At the 
British Dairy Institute there is a Manager who is also 
Chief Instructor, and an Instructress. There are four 
" external lecturers " whose work is in connexion with 
the neighbouring counties (see p. 99). It is important 
to observe that the Department of Agriculture and 
Horticulture relies upon the aid of the Professors of 
Chemistry, Physics, Botany, and Zoology in the Faculty 
of Science, and is able to use their laboratories. Similar 
aid is received from the Department of Commerce and 
Technical Subjects : e.g. in regard to Book-keeping, 
Agricultural Engineering, Surveying, and Meteorology. 

(6) Students. 

(a) Conditions of Admission. — Students are not 
admitted to the Degree (London University) Course in 



UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, READING. 69 

Agriculture until they have passed the London University 
Matriculation examination. Those desirous of under- 
taking a Diploma Course in Agriculture or Horticulture 
must (i) pass a simple entrance examination, or produce 
evidence of having passed an equivalent test: (2) produce 
satisfactory evidence as to character, and as to the 
seriousness of their purpose in becoming Diploma students. 

All day students of University College must be at least 
1 6 years of age. 

(b) Fees. — Students v^^hose parents reside in Reading, 
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, or Oxfordshire, 
i.e. within areas whose County Councils contribute to the 
maintenance of the College, obtain a reduction of (in 
general) 25 per cent, upon the ordinary tuition fees. 

One Session 
One Term One Session (Reduced for local 
(Three Terms) students) 

B.Sc. (Agriculture) "j 

Diploma in Agriculture \^i2 £2^ >C 1 8 

„ Dairying j 

Two Terms 
Two Terms (Reduced for local 
students) 

Certificate in Agriculture jri6 £12 

One Year 
One Year (Reduced for local 
students) 

Certificate in Dairying ;^3o £2^ 

Six Months' Course in Dairying £16 

Three „ „ „ £\o 

One Session 
One Session (Reduced for local 
(40 weeks) students) 

Diploma in Horticulture £2^ £1^ 

Certificate in Horticulture £2^ £1^ 

Proportionate charges are made to students who may 
be specially admitted for shorter periods of study. 

There are also minor charges in connexion with 
examinations, &c. 

(c) Residence. — All students whose homes are at a 
distance from Reading, following full courses of day study, 



70 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

are required to reside in Wantage Hall (Men), St. Patrick's 
Hostel (Men), St. Andrew's Hostel (Women), St. George's 
Hostel (Women), or in certain cases, in Recognised Houses 
under the supervision of the College authorities. 

The cost of board and lodgings for a session of 30 
weeks in a Hall of Residence or Recognised House varies 
from about ^30 to jC45' 

The total cost of tuition, board, and lodging for a 
session of 30 weeks, may be approximately estimated at 
about ^65 for those Diploma Course Students in 
Agriculture who cannot claim any reduction in tuition 
fees on the ground of residence within the area of a 
contributing county. For Students who are able to 
claim such reduction, the total cost would be approximately 
^^58. Since the session for Horticultural Students extends 
to 40 weeks, their total expenses are slightly in excess of 
these amounts. 

(7) Extension Wor\. Experiments. 

The Department's principal activities outside the 
College within the area of the contributing counties are : 
(i) Lectures to Farmers and Gardeners (2) Field 
Experiments (3) Identification of Pests, Diseases, &c. 
(4) Analysis of Farm seeds, soils, manures, waters, feeding 
stufFs, dairy produce, &c.* (5) Advice with regard to 
the management of Gardens and Orchards (6) Issue 
of Bulletins and Reports on Agricultural subjects (7) 
Examination of Schools, judging at Agricultural Shows, 
&c. In illustration, it may be mentioned that lectures are 
given at selected centres, both in agriculture and horticulture, 
and of recent years well-attended winter courses for farmers 
and gardeners respectively have also been held at the 
College. Demonstrations in butter-making and milk- 
testing are usually given at the Oxfordshire Agricultural 

* The analytical practice of University College, Reading, is in accord with the 
principle laid down by the Departmental Committee. " The Committee, while 
of opinion that analysis for commercial or trade purposes forms no part of the 
function of an agricultural college in receipt of State aid, consider that when 
analytical work is distinctly of educational value it may properly be carried out by 
the chemist at such an institution." (Departmental Committee on Agricultural 
Education. [Cd. 4206] p. 29). 



UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, READING. 71 

Show. Inquiries from farmers and gardeners increase in 
number, and about 150 are dealt with annually by 
correspondence and visits. Analytical work also grows ; 
about 240 samples were analysed during the session 1 909- 1 o. 
The chief experiments carried out on the College Farm 
have related to the manuring of grass and other crops, 
and to the comparative value of different forms of nitro- 
genous fertilisers. Trials of the relative merits of English, 
Scotch, and Irish seed potatoes have been conducted for 
the Irish Board of Agriculture, and various crops have 
been tested by growth in plots. Experiments in the 
manuring of grass land and Swede crops have been carried 
out on twenty Oxfordshire farms. Official trials of 400 
varieties of sweet peas have been conducted in the gardens 
for several successive years for the National Sweet Pea 
Society ; and these trials have been inspected by visitors 
from all parts of the country and from the Continent and 
the United States. Other experiments and trials which 
need not here be detailed are also carried out in the 
gardens. Numerous publications and reports dealing with 
the results of experiments have been issued by the 
Department. Other publications relating to agricultural 
and horticultural subjects have been issued by members of 
the staff, of which the most noteworthy are Professor 
Percival's fourth edition of his "Agricultural Botany," 
and his recently published treatise on "Agricultural 
Bacteriology." 

Two-fold Nature of Problem. 

The foregoing sketch of the agricultural department 
shews that the problem of agricultural development at 
Reading, as elsewhere, resolves itself into two parts, the 
internal and the external. There is the problem of so 
organising and maintaining agricultural teaching and 
research within the Institution that both shall be carried on 
with the maximum efficiency. There is also the problem 
of bringing the agricultural department into helpful 
relations with the agriculture of the district ; in other 
words, of helping the local farmer. Both these tasks 
must be faced in any policy of development at Reading, 



72 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



if the College there is to make good adequately and 
permanently its claim to be the recognised University 
centre for agricultural instruction throughout a wide area. 
It should be noted that, of the two tasks, the internal 
of necessity has the priority both for consideration and in 
importance. The first duty of an agricultural college is 
to teach its students well ; and to accomplish this duty 
demands many conditions, of which an adequate staff is 
only one. Moreover, if the internal work of teaching 
and research is well done, its good effects are bound to be 
felt in the area outside, since a proportion, possibly a large 
proportion, of the students of the College will certainly 
be drawn from the surrounding district. Upon the other 
hand, while it would be futile to impose an ambitious 
programme of extension activities upon a staff already 
overburdened with internal duties, an agricultural college 
fails at a vital point unless it wins the interest and 
confidence of farmers. Not only does it fail to realise its 
true function, but it loses invaluable support. The 
significant remark on a preceding page (p. 27) that 
the College at Guelph overflows with students because 
Ontario farmers, by means of the Experimental Union and 
other links, are interested in its doings, can hardly have 
escaped notice. In England the confidence of farmers 
has yet to be won ; and it cannot be won without effort, 
— active, well-directed, capable, and persistent. They 
cannot know about the College, still less become interested 
in its work, unless the College makes itself known and 
interesting to them. In framing the following observa- 
tions and suggestions, therefore, we have kept this double 
function of an agricultural college or department — the 
internal and the external — carefully in view. 



QUESTIONS OF INTERNAL POLICY. 73 



Questions of Internal Policy. 

The questions of internal policy to which we desire 
to call attention are (i) Staff (2) Curriculum (3) 
Admission and Entrance of Students (4) The Farm 
(5) Experiments and Research (6) Buildings (7) After 
Careers of Students. 

(l) Staff. 

Nothing can be more in accord with experience and 
common sense than the truth that to do good work there 
must be good men to do it. An agricultural department 
if it is to be efficient and to be worthy of a University 
institution, must command four kinds of ability on its 
staff. There must be ability to organise and direct ; 
ability to teach ; ability to supervise individual students ; 
and ability to experiment and research. One of the 
worst and most common blunders in making appoint- 
ments is to fail to discriminate between these kinds of 
ability, or to fail to provide enough of each. Because a 
man has one kind of ability it does not follow that he has 
the rest. Directive and organising faculty does not always 
accompany learning ; brilliance in research sometimes 
goes with poor teaching ; many competent teachers lack 
imaginative and creative powers essential for the 
performance of research of the highest order ; and 
experience shows that unless students are handled one by 
one as well as collectively, many of them will fail to 
profit as they ought by the instruction they receive, 
however excellent it may be. 

In the first instance, therefore, the problem of staffing 
should be considered from this point of view. The 
principle of specialisation, however, should be carried 
further. At present, both at Reading and elsewhere, most 
members of the teaching staff are dealing with too many 
subjects of instruction. The Departmental Committee on 
agricultural education rightly called attention to this serious 



74 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

flaw.* " The quality of the instruction given by the 
colleges, both in the indoor and external lectures, has 
suffered from the circumstance that teachers have been 
required to deal w^ith too many subjects, or in the case of 
agriculture with a subject too wide to be treated effectively 
by a single man. ' Agriculture ' as defined in the ordinary 
syllabus covers the whole range of arable and stock farming, 
and frequently includes such related subjects as estate 
management, forestry, fruit-farming, and market garden- 
ing. Of these the teacher of agriculture is supposed to 
possess an expert knowledge. Though there may be no 
difficulty in acquiring a sufficient acquaintance with all 
these subjects in order to pass examinations, or to train 
students to pass them, a higher standard of knowledge is 
required in teachers in universities and colleges. The 
professor must be an expert in his subject, and his teaching 
must be such as will be of value not only to the 
elementary and advanced student, but in the case of a 
subject like agriculture, to the experienced practical farmer. 
The evidence taken by the Committee clearly shows that 
the advice of the teacher is frequently sought, and it is 
obviously desirable that the practice should be encouraged 
and that the farmer, when in a difficulty, should learn to 
resort for advice with as much confidence to the agri- 
cultural expert as he now does to the medical specialist 
or to the skilled engineer. But if the knowledge of the 
teacher of agriculture is thus to be sought often, the 
teacher must follow the example of similar wide subjects 
and must specialise." " Teachers must be thoroughly 
trained specialists, "-j" 

Efficient teaching of university standard demands 
two things, a high personal calibre and concentration 
upon a definite line of study. The principle of 
specialisation of teaching functions is carried to a 
remarkable length in America, and in this respect we 
may well borrow from their experience. Unless the 
principle is observed in all except quite minor appoint- 
ments, it is unreasonable to expect an agricultural 

"^Departmental Report on Agricultural Education [Cd. 4206] p. 23. 
t Annual Report of Board of Agriculture [Cd. 5388] p. vii. 



INTERNAL POLICY. CURRICULUM, ys 

college to make progress, its instructors to win 
reputation and respect, or its performances in general 
to satisfy the exacting standards of external critics. In 
our opinion, the first step in any policy of agricultural 
development at Reading must be to review the existing 
staffing provision in the light of the principles here laid 
down. It will probably be found that some readjustments 
in the existing distribution of duties, and certain new 
appointments in connexion with special branches of 
agriculture or horticulture are required. In making any 
new appointment of major rank, it is impossible to 
exaggerate the importance of securing a first-class man. 
At the risk of wearisome repetition, we reiterate that the 
question of personnel goes to the very root of efficiency in 
agricultural instruction. Associate a College or depart- 
ment with men of conspicious ability and energy, and it is 
hardly too much to say that all other desirable things 
will follow in their proper places. No proposition 
receives more lip-homage in educational circles, and 
perhaps none is more frequently flouted in practice. We 
who have lately seen what has been done by such person- 
alities as those of Babcock at Wisconsin, Bailey at 
Cornell, Creelman at Guelph, and Robertson at Macdonald, 
desire urgently to impress upon the Council of University 
College, Reading, the extreme importance of bearing this 
point in mind in any policy of development which they 
may think proper to initiate. 

(2) Curriculum. 

(a) Control. — As soon as a College has attained a 
sufficient measure of competence and strength as a 
University institution, it should itself determine and 
control its principal courses of study, and the examinations 
in connexion with them. Any system by which syllabuses 
and regulations are imposed from without is educationally 
indefensible, and is inconsistent with the freedom and 
encouragement of initiative and development.* In 
England, as in America, an institution of recognised 

* The observation applies to the main courses of College study. Here there 
should be freedom. But this freedom is quite consistent with the acceptance of 
external examinations and syllabuses to suit a minority of individual cases. The 
National Diploma Examinations in Dairying and Agriculture are instances. 



76 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

standing, providing agricultural instruction, should be 
free to shape its educational policy in accordance with its 
special circumstances, of which it can reasonably claim to 
have a better knowledge, and to be a better judge, than 
any other persons or authorities. 

(b) Character of Courses. — The general scope and 
variety (as distinct from details of syllabuses and procedure) 
of the courses of agricultural instruction which it is 
desirable to provide at Reading is much the same as 
elsewhere, whether in English or American Colleges. 
The broad character of the provision must always be 
governed by consideration of the types of persons who 
seek agricultural education. The main types are three. 
(i) The student who seeks a thorough and complete 
training in the science and practice of Agriculture in 
order, most probably, that he may qualify as a farmer 
on a large scale or as an expert or specialist instructor. 
For all such students, as well as for students 
who without this special motive desire to enter 
for a long course of advanced study, a degree course, 
occupying three or four years, is a necessity. (2) The 
student who as a rule proceeds directly from school to 
College in order to receive a training prior to becoming 
a farmer or horticulturist, at home or abroad. 
Such students can rarely stay at College more than 
two years, and for them a two years' Diploma course 
is required. (3) The student who having left school at 
the age of 1 4 or 15 and subsequently having engaged in 
work on his home farm or other farm, wishes to improve 
his knowledge of agriculture by six or nine months' study, 
chiefly from a practical point of view. For this type of 
student a Winter Course is necessary, with possibilities of 
extension, e.g., in Dairying. Farm Schools supply a 
similar kind of training, and care should be taken to 
avoid overlapping. 

These are the main types of students, and we 
consider that in respect of duration and intention, the 
four year, two year, and six months courses at Reading 
are suitably designed to meet their needs. 



INTERNAL POLICY. CURRICULUM, jj 

At Reading, in addition to the above, the existence 
of the British Dairy Institute enables a variety of short 
courses in dairying to be offered, for which there is a 
steady demand. 

Three other needs must always be considered and 
met. (i) Every effort should be made to give facilities 
to the properly qualified postgraduate student who wishes 
to investigate or study some special problem of Agriculture 
or Horticulture. The Graduate Schools are one of the 
most striking features of the agricultural Colleges of 
Canada and of the United States. At Cornell at the time 
of our visit there were 58 graduate students working in 
the agricultural laboratories; at Wisconsin, in 1908-9, 24. 
The numbers of such students in English Universities and 
Colleges are relatively small. At Reading there have 
been several whose work has been chiefly in connexion 
with botanical and bacteriological investigations. The 
purpose of a University department is to advance knowledge 
as well as to distribute it ; and upon every ground the 
research student should be encouraged. Provided that no 
such student is admitted without satisfactory credentials, 
that every student works under the direction of a professor 
who approves the course of study proposed, that the total 
number of such students does not exceed the material 
resources of the laboratories, we think that the presence 
of such students should be encouraged in every way 
possible. For such post-graduate students the fees 
charged should be nominal, and financial aid should be 
forthcoming for certain students of undoubted ability 
who need it. The further point should also be borne in 
mind — that it is by a post-graduate system that the existing 
generation of teachers and specialists can most effectively 
pass on their knowledge to their successors. (2) The 
provision of vacation courses for teachers should be one of 
the regular activities of the Department. Further reference 
to this point will be found in the section devoted to 
external questions (see p. 100). (3) Short courses 
for practical farmers should form a regular part of the 
work of the specialists on the teaching staff. Each 



78 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

course should last three or four days, be confined to one 
subject treated from different points of view by various 
members of the staff, and be illustrated by demonstrations 
at the College Farm. 

(c) The teaching of Science. — The relative claim of 
pure sciences in an agricultural curriculum such as that 
provided at Reading, the period in the course when pure 
sciences should be studied, the measure of proficiency in 
purely scientific knowledge to which a degree or diploma 
student should attain, are difficult questions. It is doubtful 
whether as yet any wholly satisfactory treatment of them 
has anywhere been devised. Our views upon these points 
are the outcome of experience at home, as well as of 
observation of American and Canadian practice and its 
results, and we propose to give frank expression to them. 

All the American and Canadian institutions visited 
recognise not only that a College education alone cannot 
make the complete farmer, but also that there are parts 
of training essential to a farmer's education which no 
College can effectively provide. Thus they assume, in 
fact they impose as a condition, that a student who wishes 
to enter upon one of the long courses of agricultural study 
must have spent at least one year working upon a farm.* 
Upon that foundation of familiarity with farm-routine they 
proceed to build, concentrating their effort upon instructing 
the student in modern and improved methods of agriculture. 
It is not their aim to produce the finished farmer. An 
agricultural college can no more do that than a school of 
navigation can produce a captain of a liner. The main 
function of the agricultural college is to teach the best 
methods of farming. Practical experience before and 
after the college course is what makes, and what alone can 
make, the farmer; but if, during the college period, he 
has studied and mastered the best agricultural methods, 
and has undergone the mental training which that study 
involves, his chance of becoming an intelligent and 
successful farmer is much increased. 

* Cf. Macdonald College, p. 17 ; Guelph College, p. 25 ; Cornell 
University, p. 39. 



INTERNAL POLICY. TEACHING OF SCIENCE.79 

When, however, we scrutinise the curricula of 
agricultural institutions we find in a majority of 
instances, both here and in America, that the instruction 
deemed necessary to give this knowledge of better methods 
of agriculture consists, both in two year and in four year 
courses, partly of empirical or technical instruction, and 
partly of instruction in pure science, such as Physics and 
Chemistry. As a rule during the first half of the course 
the student's time-table is occupied, in proportions roughly 
equal, by studies in pure science and studies in the 
technical and practical subjects.* Such a curriculum is 
sanctioned by custom, but it is doubtful whether the 
principles upon which it is suffered to rest are often 
reasoned out. The student whose aim is to become a 
farmer, and the student whose aim is to become an expert 
or specialist instructor, are alike subjected to this system. 
In our opinion the system is wrong. Signs of dissatisfaction 
with its results, and of effort to adjust the claims of the 
respective branches of study, were noted by us in America; 
and we believe that few Colleges in England have 
been exempt from difficulties and discontent arising from 
this source. 

The question is so important as to deserve close 
attention. To justify the present method in agricultural 
education of University standard, according to which, 
during the first two years of the course half of the 
student's time is devoted to "science" and half to technical 
subjects, it is necessary to shew either that such study of 
science provides a really valuable training, or that it supplies 
useful knowledge which is directly applicable to practical 
agriculture. Now, the value of the mental training and 
discipline to be obtained from the study of Chemistry, or 
Physics, or Botany, is indisputable ; but only when the 
study is carried on under certain conditions. These 
conditions are that the study shall be close and continuous, 
and that the time devoted to lectures and laboratory work 
shall be ample. Briefly, the study must be thorough if 

* For details upon this point, see particulars of courses of instruction as given in 
the Annual Report of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 1910 [Cd. 5388.] 



8o AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

the good is to result. But agricultural students required 
to study technical subjects and pure sciences simultaneously 
are unable to give to their scientific studies either the 
requisite time or concentration of mind. Consequently 
they gain only a small part of the intellectual stimulus 
and discipline which should result from the study of 
science. Moreover, although agriculture is based 
upon science, yet the direct bearing of Chemistry 
or Physics upon Agriculture is hardly to be grasped by 
students with only a smattering of these sciences ; and 
therefore the practical value of the scientific knowledge 
possessed by an ordinary agricultural student at the end of 
two years' study, pursued under the unsatisfactory 
conditions described, is almost nil. Much of the 
knowledge which he acquired, being unrelated to his 
practical interests, is quickly forgotten ; and there remains 
to him no permanent benefit of training and only a small 
stock of scientific knowledge, little of which is capable 
of application in his work as a farmer. Students 
themselves are conscious of the futility of studying science 
under the conditions which usually prevail. Their 
attitude towards it is not "friendly." They feel that it 
stands between them and their agriculture : and their 
feeling is often only too well justified. In our opinion, 
the comparative fewness of serious agricultural students in 
this country is in part due to dissatisfaction with the 
curriculum.* 

The present system is equally unsatisfactory if we 
consider it in relation to the small group of really able 
students who take up the study of agriculture. When 
such men enter upon a course of study as described, partly 
scientific and partly technical, they are apt to suffer in two 
ways. First, their progress is impeded by the low 
standards of the average student for whom the course in 
science has been planned; and secondly, they tend because 
of their ability and antecedents to neglect their practical 

* It is worth noting that at Reading the student of Horticulture spends a relatively 
larger amount of time in " practical " studies than the student of Agriculture. 
Opinion, even of those who teach him pure science, would certainly not pronounce 
the horticultural student less intelligent or less keen. 



INTERNAL POLICY. TEACHING OF SCIENCE.8 1 

agriculture in favour of science. And yet precisely 
because these more intellectual men are usually without 
experience of farm work, it is important that the 
practical side of agriculture should from the first arouse 
and hold their interest and attention. Otherwise, 
agriculture is likely to suffer serious losses. For these are 
the very men, however small their numbers, who are 
capable of becoming able investigators and teachers, or 
really "■ inventive " farmers. If, however, agriculture 
is to profit by their abilities, agriculture must be the 
predominant interest throughout the course of training 
of these abler students. They must be agriculturists 
first, and men of pure science afterwards. In our opinion 
the courses of instruction, as ordinarily arranged, are not 
calculated to produce this desirable result. 

It appears to us that a better procedure would be the 
following. Before admission to one of the longer courses 
in agriculture, a student should have at least a fair acquaint- 
ance with ordinary farm routine. He cannot gain this 
acquaintance unless he spends at least one year in practical 
work on a farm.* The first two years of the College 
course should be devoted, by all students alike, to the 
definitely agricultural subjects, and to subsidiary subjects 
such as book-keeping and mathematics. Instruction 
should also be given in the simpler technical facts of 
soils and manures, farm weeds, and the common disease- 
producing fungi and insects, as well as in the 
care and use of farm implements. Such courses 
should be short, thorough, limited in scope, and 
precise in application. They should not spread away 
into an attempt, impossible under the conditions, to teach 
the general principles and procedure of Chemistry, 
Botany, Physics, and Zoology. On the other hand, we are 
strongly of opinion that in most agricultural courses the 
" culture " side is insufficiently developed, although 
agricultural students, as a rule are by no means in a 
position to neglect it. A system of weekly essays gives 
opportunity for improving composition, and of directing 

* Further reference to this proposal will be found on p. 84 



82 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

reading. It will have been noticed that the inclusion of 
simple courses in Literature and History is a feature of 
the agricultural curricula at the Macdonald and Guelph 
Colleges, and we appreciate the importance of the object 
which these courses have in view. The provision of 
such teaching should present no difficulty to an Agri- 
cultural Department which is incorporated in a University 
institution.* 

The decisive point in the curriculum would be 
reached at the end of two years. Students then segregate 
into three groups : [a) those who having obtained 
the practical instruction they needed proceed to take up 
farming at home or abroad ; [b) those who desire to stay 
a third year in order to study more fully some one branch 
of agriculture ; and {c) those who wish to complete their 
training as experts or specialists by a further two years of 
study. The last group, who may be described as " degree " 
students, should receive special attention, despite their 
small numbers, because of their ability and serious purpose. 
By the beginning of the second period of two years, 
these degree students on the one hand will have become 
keenly interested in the practical side of agriculture, and 
on the other hand will be feeling the imperative need of 
more scientific knowledge. Instead of the reluctance which 
is at present usually felt by an agricultural student when 
called upon to study sciences at the beginning of his 
course (whereas he had set his heart upon studying 
agriculture), it may be confidently anticipated that these 
degree students will now work with zest and vigour at 
such sciences as Botany and Chemistry in relation to 
Agriculture, and that their progress in scientific knowledge 
will be more satisfactory and rapid than under the old 
system. It is not now necessary to plan the curriculum in 
detail, but it is obvious that during the third and fourth years 
the student should give a large portion of his time to the 

• A well-illustrated course of lectures dealing with the progress of English 
agriculture, and shewing how almost every step has been due to individual 
experiment and the application of scientific ideas to practice, would not only 
instruct the student in a most important branch of social history, but should 
increase his respect for scientific and enlightened methods of agriculture. 



INTERNAL POLICY. TEACHING OF SCIENCE.83 

two basic sciences, Botany and Chemistry, while continuing 
the study of strictly agricultural subjects. For the training 
of specialists, postgraduate study for a further period, 
possibly the condition of an honours degree, should also 
be organised, and it might be well to adopt the practice 
of Canadian and American Universities* of requiring such 
students to write a thesis upon an approved subject. 

Thus the essence of our observations upon curriculum 
is that the first part of the route to competence in 
scientific agriculture lies through technical and practical 
study. We believe that the progress of agricultural 
education of a University standard has been retarded in 
this country by the attempt to force science upon the 
student at the wrong point in his career. The prime 
consideration in a practical teaching policy is to keep 
alive and vigorous the student's interest in agriculture, 
and not to submerge it by an unseasonable deluge of what 
he is apt to regard as tiresome and irrelevant studies. 
We have confidence that if he is given the agricultural 
curriculum which he desires, the intelligent student will 
form naturally and independently an ambition to possess a 
more extensive acquaintance with the sciences upon which 
the practice of agriculture rests. We found in America, 
for instance at Macdonald (p. 15) and Wisconsin (p. 46), 
much to enforce the reasonableness of our view. If this 
view should prove to be correct, it will be of 
little use to denounce it as heretical : for the result will 
be that the advanced student will study science to better 
purpose than in the past, and that the scheme of his 
curriculum will be in harmony with the natural trend of 
his intellectual development. 

(3) <iAdmission and Entrance of Students. 

An examination of the statistics of students attending 
agricultural Departments and Colleges in this country 
suggests that probably few of these institutions are able to 
enforce entrance conditions with severity. At Reading, 
during recent years increased strictness has been exercised, 

* At Cornell post-graduate courses extend to three years, making a total training 
period of seven years. 



84 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

and we urge that the standards of admission should be 
gradually raised until no student is accepted for one of the 
longer courses who is not in ability and purpose clearly 
fitted to pursue the course of study with advantage to 
himself and the Department. 

The point is of capital importance in relation to 
efficiency. Experience shows everywhere that the 
agricultural college is too often regarded as the last refuge 
of the incompetent.* Thither, unless checked by admission 
barriers, betake themselves some of the idlers, dullards, 
and failures of school, as well as the serious and capable 
student. Others seek admission because an outdoor 
career has been recommended as a corrective of some 
physical or mental ailment, and of these only a proportion 
are capable of becoming satisfactory students. In all such 
cases scrutiny by the College authorities is imperative, 
and a policy of sifting and rejection should be pursued. 
The advantage of larger fee receipts and larger numbers 
is dearly purchased if it means lowering the standards of 
work and retarding the progress of the capable student, 
through the admission of the backward or unfit. 

Our chief observation under this heading, however, 
relates to the condition of previous experience of farm 
work. In the preceding section we have urged that 
before admission to one of the longer courses in agriculture 
a student should show that he is acquainted with 
ordinary farm routine. The advantages resulting from the 
application of this condition are so obvious and great, and 
so clearly illustrated by American and Canadian experience, 
that it is hardly needful to discuss them. Nevertheless, 
we recognise that there might be difficulty in applying 
the condition in its entirety at once. We suggest, therefore, 
that in adopting it at Reading, it should be accompanied 
by an alternative, namely, that students unable to shew a 
previous experience of one year upon a farm must spend, 
either during the vacations of their first two years at 

* Cf. Annual Report of the Board of Agriculture, 19 lo [Cd. 5388], p. vii., 
" The experience of most of those who have been engaged in the teaching of 
Agriculture is that the quality of the students admitted to our agricultural colleges 

is often unsatisfactory." 



INTERNAL POLICY. THE FARM. 85 

College, or at least before starting on their third year's 
course, a sufficient period on a farm under approved 
conditions. A similar condition should be imposed in 
reference to two year courses of study. It should 
be possible to arrange that some at least of these 
students should gain their practical experience by working 
on the College Farm.* 

(4) T'he Farm. 

A College Farm should fulfil three main functions. 
{a) It should serve the purpose of an agricultural 
laboratory where students are instructed in general 
agricultural practice. If this educational object is to be 
attained, it is evident that the Farm cannot be conducted 
merely for commercial profit. For example, students 
cannot be taught to milk except at the expense of the 
milk-yield ; it is probable that some live stock not very 
well suited to the district must be kept for demonstration 
purposes ; and some crops must be grown, because of 
their importance elsewhere, in spite of the fact that the 
soil of the Farm may not be specially adapted to them. 
These are the first conditions of an educational farm, and 
they at once diff'erentiate its purpose and management 
from that of a purely commercial undertaking, {b) The 
Farm should carry on experiments. As far as possible, 
these should relate to the problems of the district and be 
suggested by practical farmers, who will thereby have an 
additional interest in visiting the College, and will be more 
likely to respect and to co-operate with its experimental 
work. Farmers not seldom visit the Farm at Reading, 
and have always shewn considerable interest in the 
experiments there ; but there is room for a great 
development in this respect, {c) The third function of a 
College Farm is to demonstrate a typical branch of 
local agriculture, carried on in the best possible way as a 
going and economical concern. At Reading the branch 
of agriculture selected should be dairy farming.f- We 

* Cf. practice in this respect at Guelph. 

f The Farm at Reading possesses an excellent market for milk in the University 

College, and its halls of residence, and in the British Dairy Institute. 



86 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

do not enter here into the question of the best method 
of organising the management of such a Farm. The 
assistance of an Advisory Committee of farmers in 
connexion with it would be of obvious value, for in this 
way their sympathy and interest is most readily to be 
obtained. The criticism of practical men and their 
discussion of the methods and experiments practised on 
the Farm would in themselves be guarantees that a sound 
policy would be pursued. 

Briefly then, we consider that the educational side of 
a College Farm, and the side which is managed on 
specialised and strictly commercial lines, are both necessary 
for obtaining the best results ; that they respresent distinct 
and separate functions, and that confusion between them 
is one of the reasons why College Farms often fail to 
convince either the farmer or the man of science. For 
the result of an unsatisfactory compromise is that the farms 
do not pay because their experimental and educational 
work is costly, while their experiments are apt to be 
starved and unconvincing through fear of balance sheets. 
The difficulty can only be surmounted by the division of 
the Farm into two separate parts ; one for teaching and 
experiment, the other for commercial demonstration. 

(5) Sxperiments and 'Research. 

It is increasingly felt that a University Department 
should have as one of its principal aims and activities the 
carrying on of experiments and of research. " In higher 
institutions providing agricultural education, original 
work should not only be encouraged, but expected."* 
Reputation and efficiency of teaching, in other words, 
the prosperity of the Department, both depend upon the 
degree of sincerity and effectiveness with which this aim 
and this activity are pursued. Yet there still is much 
that is haphazard and unsatisfactory about this aspect of 
agricultural education. Without entering upon the wider 
questions which, it is understood, are at present engaging 
the attention of the Board of Agriculture in connexion 

* Report of Departmental Committee [Cd. 4206], p. 26. 



INTERNAL POLICY. RESEARCH. 87 

with the schemes of the Development Commission, we 
suggest that the research question should be considered in 
such a Department as that at Reading from three points 
of view. (i) Whilst facilities should be provided to 
enable specially qualified members of staff to pursue 
researches, the immediate practical applications of which 
may not be obvious, the main research effort of the staff 
should concentrate upon the investigation of local problems. 
If this aim is to be effectively attained, the staff should 
include specialists, each of whom should base his programme 
of researches upon a survey of the agriculture of the 
region over which the influence of the College extends. 
The purpose of the researches should be to elucidate the 
ways in which the agricultural practice of the region is 
capable of improvement, and whenever a point is established 
experimentally, it should receive demonstration upon the 
College Farm, and elsewhere, in order that publicity may 
be given to it. (2) The continual repetition of experiments, 
the results of which are foregone and accepted truths, is 
to be deprecated. Nevertheless, it must be remembered 
that " demonstration " is as important from the practical 
point of view as research itself, and therefore provision 
should be made — and at Reading is made — for demonstra- 
tion experiments in different parts of the area.* (3) How 
is the work of experiment and research to be organised in 
reference to the staff.? No member of the staff should 
be wholly occupied with teaching. Each should have 
enough time either for laboratory research, or for work 
of investigation and demonstration in the field. " Each 
teacher must be expected to work at his subject ; the 
agriculturist must farm; the chemist work in his laboratory; 
and so with the others, otherwise college teachers would 
soon become unfit for the positions they occupy. "i" 
Nevertheless, it is certain that not all the members of an 
agricultural staff are likely to be able to carry out original 
investigation of the highest kinds. In making appoint- 

* Agricultural university institutions might well agree to conduct, more often, 
simultaneous trials and demonstrations of new methods suggested by researches, 
which are not extensively known among the agricultural community. 

fAnnual Report of the Board of Agriculture, 1910, [Cd. 5388], p. vii. 



88 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

ments, it ought always to be recognised that some men 
are wanted primarily for teaching, and that among such 
men there are some who are not able to carry out 
independent investigation. To insist upon such men 
attempting research of the higher order is useless. 
Their function is to teach, and to conduct under 
direction trials and demonstrations. The latter work is 
not research, and should not be confused with it.* 
Nevertheless, as we have already observed, it is important 
work, and those who are associated with it, retain touch 
with practical agriculture, and are not likely to degenerate 
into merely academic agriculturists. Other men, on the 
contrary, should primarily be researchers, though it is 
desirable that they should also lecture on their special 
subjects. The majority of the staff should both research 
and teach, for this is the ideal condition for the University 
agriculturist. 

(6) ''Buildings . 

The existing buildings of the Agricultural Department 
are excellent as far as they go, but even though 
supplemented by the adjacent British Dairy Institute, it 
is already evident that any considerable increase in the 
number of students using them, or the addition of new 
members of staff, would make an enlargement of them 
indispensable. Fortunately, the style of building adopted 
by the Council of University College, Reading, is very 
simple and economical. The laboratory buildings can 
best be described as single-storey workshops. They have 
proved most satisfactory in use, and their simplicity of 
construction makes it possible to build substantial additions 
to them at moderate cost. Agriculture and Horticulture 
will certainly require more laboratory and class-room 

* Cp. on this important point the Annual Report of the Board of Agriculture, 
19 1 o, [Cd. 5388] p. xii. "The " expert" agriculturist laying out manurial plots 
on a farm, or the chemist analysing agricultural products in his laboratory, may 
be no more engaged in research than the farm labourer, or the miller, carrying 
out his routine tasks. In order that work may become research it must satisfy 
one or both of two conditions (i) it must, as a result of observation or experiment, 
result in the collection of fresh facts : (2) it must involve an examination of the 
facts collected, or phenomena observed, and the reduction of these to a form in 
which they constitute an addition to knowledge." 



INTERNAL POLICY. STUDENTS' CAREERS. 89 

accommodation in the near future, and we think that the 
agricultural buildings would be made more interesting 
and useful to students and farmers if they included a 
well-arranged agricultural museum and a machinery hall, 
where, as for example at Guelph or Macdonald, specimens 
of the best types of agricultural machines and implements 
could be kept for educational purposes. One of the 
conditions of success alike for a College or for a Department 
is to possess buildings with interesting contents ; and we 
think that the Agricultural Department at Reading is 
not as well provided in this respect as it should be. 

(7) After careers of Students. 

It was stated on a previous page (p. 40.) that 9 1 per 
cent, of the ex-students of the College of Agriculture at 
Cornell University were engaged in farming, or were 
pursuing some line of work directly allied to agriculture. 
So high a proportion compels us to realise that the 
subsequent career of an agricultural student in Canada or 
the United States is exempt from many of the difficulties 
experienced here. For him land is available, and he 
proceeds to farm it. Very different are the conditions 
which characterise a country of old occupation. A 
student at an English college may give every promise of 
practical ability as a farmer, but it by no means follows 
that a farmer's career will be open to him at home. He 
may become a teacher of agriculture, or he may emigrate 
in order to become a farmer in a distant land, within or 
without the Empire, unless he is fortunate enough to 
command an opening as a farmer in England. We 
venture to suggest that more might be done to help such 
a student to secure a suitable career than is done at 
present. It should be the business of some organisation, 
working upon the lines, for example, of the Cambridge 
Appointments Committee, and representing perhaps not 
one institution but several, to try to find opportunities and 
careers in this country as well as abroad, for young men 
of agricultural ability. 



90 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



Questions of External Policy. 

The Opportunity of the College. 

The nucleus of the College at Reading came into 
being only eighteen years ago. Ten years were absorbed 
in the effort to gain status as a University institution. 
The chief tasks and achievements of the second decade, 
thus far, have been the rebuilding of the College upon 
a new^ site, and its endowment ; the recasting of its 
internal organisation, and a great extension of its scheme 
of residential halls. In the meanwhile, sharing in the 
rapid advance of the College, the Department of 
Agriculture and Horticulture has developed from small 
beginnings until in respect of the number of long-course 
students in attendance it has become the largest agricultural 
department, with the exception of that at Cambridge, in 
connexion with any University institution in England and 
Wales.* Moreover, as already stated (p. 64) the resources 
of the Department (e.g. horticultural ground. Farm, 
British Dairy Institute, new buildings) have during the 
same period been greatly improved and extended. Thus 

* The statement is based upon the statistics in the latest Annual Report ot the 
Board of Agriculture, 1910. [Cd. 5388]. The Report shews that, in 
1908-9 of students taking courses of study occupying two full sessions, or more, 
Reading had 46, Bangor i 3, Leeds University 16, Newcastle 1 7, Aberystwyth 14, 
Cambridge University 5 i (apart from a number of Forestry students). It students 
taking winter courses (one period of six months, or more than one) be included, 
the gross figures are Reading 58, Bangor 13, Leeds University 49, Newcastle 24, 
Aberystwyth 45, Cambridge University 51 (apart from a number of students in 
Forestry). Each institution also records a number of "special students," the 
duration and character of whose studies is not stated. 



OPPORTUNITY OF THE COLLEGE. 91 

the general position and outlook are highly encouraging. 
It is to be observed, however, that the growth of the 
Department has been characterised, and indeed only made 
possible, by concentration of effort upon internal problems 
rather than upon external. The amount of external work 
carried on in the region around, both independently and 
in co-operation with neighbouring County Councils, is 
considerable, as already shewn, and is increasing. But it 
has not hitherto received as much attention as the internal 
work in connexion with the regular students of the 
College.* In our opinion this concentration upon the 
internal problems has been entirely justified, for until the 
internal work is sound and sufficiently strong it is folly to 
undertake more than moderate responsibilities outside. 
But we are equally convinced that the time has now come 
when the question of developing the external work of the 
Department among agriculturists of the surrounding 
counties should be taken up with energy. Like Guelph, 
the College at Reading should aim at becoming "the 
aggressive distributor of the best ideas and methods " of 
agriculture. We desire to approach and to treat this 
question as one of public policy, for we believe that the 
interests of agriculturists throughout a wide region will 
be promoted by the development of a vigorous extension 
side to the Agricultural Department at Reading. 

If an institution is to serve a large district (and 
experience and economy dictate that the district shall be 
large), it should occupy a central and accessible position. 
University College is well qualified in this respect. 
Reading stands on the border-line between Oxfordshire 
and Berkshire, within seven miles of Hampshire and 
eight miles of Buckinghamshire. The railway routes 
which converge upon Reading give ready access to it 
from all this area except part of Buckinghamshire. To 
this circumstance modern Reading owes much of its 
prosperity, and the College much of its growth. 
Primarily because the College is so conveniently situated, 

'^ It should be observed that a considerable proportion of these students come from 
the area of the contributing counties. 



92 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

the County Councils of the four counties named have 
been able to make use of and to support its educational 
work. Their Education Committees send to it a steady 
stream of county scholars, their secondary schools are in 
touch with it, and in other ways the College plays a part 
of growing importance in the higher education of the 
region. But undoubtedly its greatest opportunity of 
service is in regard to agriculture. The new Universities 
and Colleges of northern England stand in relation to 
great urban and manufacturing centres, and their 
educational policy is accordingly marked by the pro- 
minence given to engineering and technology. But 
the College at Reading, apart from its responsibilities 
towards Reading itself, stands in the midst of a rural area 
of great extent, the interests and pursuits of which are 
predominantly agricultural. In Berkshire, Buckingham- 
shire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire there are 8,737 
farmers. If we include Dorset, a county not now 
connected with any higher institution providing agri- 
cultural education (but which formerly co-operated with 
the College at Reading), and Wiltshire (which is not in 
connexion with any higher institution providing 
agricultural education*), the total is raised to 1 4,925. "j"' 
These statistics explain why the Board of Agriculture 
selected Reading for its collegiate centre in south-central 
England, and in our opinion they point with irresistible 
force and clearness to the line upon which our educational 
policy, apart from purely University studies in Letters 
and Science, should specialise and develop. The true aim 
and ambition should be to build up a Department which 
should in effect become an Agricultural University, 
providing first and foremost for the needs of the great 
agricultural community around it. If, however, this aim 
is to be pursued with any prospect of success, it appears 
to us that foremost among necessary conditions are the 

* Annual Report of the Board of Agriculture for 1908-9 [Cd. 5388] pp. 73, iii. 

f Census of 1 90 1, Farmers here includes male and female, and the following, 

descriptions of agriculturist : Yeoman, tacksman, cheesemaker, (on Farm), 

crofter, dairy farmer, fruit grower or farmer, poultry farmer, hop-,potato-,seed-, 

grower, horse-,or cattle-,sheep-,farmer. No employees are included. 



EXTERNAL POLICY. LOCAL CONDITIONS. 93 

three following : (i) a thorough acquaintance with the 
agricultural circumstances of the district (2) a more 
effective co-operation between County Councils and the 
College in respect of agricultural education and (3) the 
institution at the College of an Extension Section to deal 
specifically with the external work of the Agricultural 
Department. 

(i) Kno'Vo ledge of Local Qonditions. 

The point scarcely needs enforcing. " Teachers in 
England and Wales are not sufficiently provided with 
material based on the close study of local conditions."* 
It is plain that if the external work of the Agricultural 
Department is to be effective, it must bear directly upon 
the problems and needs of local agriculture. Demon- 
strations and extension lectures which are not inspired 
by an intimate knowledge of the local farmer's needs are for 
the most part waste of time and money. If the services 
rendered are to have direct value to the farmer it is evident 
that two things are requisite. In the first place, the 
Agricultural Department should be enabled, in the manner 
already indicated (p. 87), to make a systematic study of the 
agriculture of the region. The localities, circumstances, 
and needs of the chief classes of agriculturists — dairy 
farmers, stock raisers, fruit growers, and the like — should 
be carefully studied ; and the programme of external 
work should be based upon the knowledge thus gained. 
Secondly, means should be taken by personal inquiries, 
conferences, addresses to Farmers' Clubs, and in such other 
ways as may commend themselves, to elicit the views of 
farmers themselves with respect to the most useful kind 
of educational service which the College could render. 
Whether it would be feasible to organise in the 
neighbouring counties Farmers' Institutes on the lines of 
those in Ontario described on p. 3 i is a question which 
can hardly be discussed here ; but the Ontario example is 
at least suggestive and stimulating. It is certain that in 
every county there are already several agricultural and 

* Report of Departmental Committee [Cd. 4206] p. 8. 



94 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

horticultural organisations which might advantageously be 
brought into relation with the collegiate centre for 
agricultural teaching. In short, whatever the means 
employed and whatever the difficulties in the way, the 
prime object should be to found agricultural service upon 
local agricultural needs, to give service of real value, and 
to eradicate altogether from the scheme of external work 
the haphazard, spasmodic, and casual element which, we 
believe, has too often in the history of English agricultural 
education been a cause of failure. 

(2) Co-operation 'Voith County Councils. 

There are two main questions. In the first place, 
there is the question of direct grants in aid of the 
Agricultural Department at Reading. The smallness of 
the grants at present received is in serious contrast with the 
amount of grants received by similar institutions in other 
parts of the country, and this contrast attracted attention 
when the Departmental Committee of the Board of 
Agriculture was inquiring into the agricultural work of 
the College at Reading. We are aware of the strain 
imposed by the cost of general higher education upon the 
resources of the counties, and we recognise that more 
support is not likely to be forthcoming except in return 
for definite services to be rendered. If, however, the 
College at Reading should be in a position to shew that 
it is ready and able to serve in increased measure the 
needs of higher agricultural education in a particular 
county, it is reasonable to suppose that the agricultural 
interest in that county would be able and willing to 
secure consideration of proposals made on its behalf. We 
would also point out that a modest increase in the subsidies 
at present given by the several county councils would 
more than proportionately strengthen the -work of the 
Department.* 



* The following particulars relative to County Council contributions to Agricul- 
tural Departments of Universities and University Colleges, and to agricultural 
institutions, are extracted from the Annual Report [Cd. 5388] of the Board 
of Agriculture, published in 1910, but referring to the year 1908-9. 



EXTERNAL POLICY. 
WORK OF COUNTY COUNCILS. 



95 



The second question concerns the relations between 
the agricultural external work of University College, 
Reading, as it is or may be carried on, and the existing 
or future agricultural teaching carried on under the direct 
control of County Councils. Hampshire, for example, 
maintains a county staff which discharges two sets of 
duties, one in connexion with the Farm School at Basing, 
the other in connexion with migratory instruction in 
dairying, poultry-keeping, farming, horticulture, &c. 
throughout the county. The contact of the Agricultural 
Department at Reading with this work is principally in 
respect of the Farm School, which is inspected and 
examined annually, and from which selected students 
proceed to the agricultural courses of instruction at 



Institutions. 



Wye, South Eastern Agricultural College 
Leeds University ... 



Amount of 
County 
Council 
Grants re- 
ceived in 
aid of 
Agricul- 
tural Edu- 
cation. 

£ 
. 6,176 

• 5^175 



Remarks. 



(£So<)) " For mainten- 
ance and tuition of 
scholars." 



Midland Agricultural and Dairy College ... 3,219 

Chelmsford Technical Laboratories ... 2,398 

Uckfield Agricultural and Horticultural College 2,1 18 
Holmes Chapel College of Agriculture and 

Horticulture ,. ... 1,900 

Harper Adams Agricultural College ... i,593 

Newcastle, Armstrong College ... ... 1,439 

Hampshire Farm School, Basing ... 1,417 

Cambridge University ... ... 1,035 

Aberystwyth University College ... 936 

Cumberland and Westmorland Farm School ... 864 

Agricultural Institute, Ridgmont ... 750 

Bangor, University College of North Wales ... 709 

Harris Institute, Preston ... ... 650 

University College, Reading ... ... 584 

Ipswich Dairy Institute ... ... 582 

National Fruit and Cider Institute (Long 

Ashton) ... ... ... 550 

British Dairy Institute, Reading... ... Nil. 



Includes Scholarships. 



Includes Scholarships 

£s^^- 



Includes Scholarships. 

Includes both grants in 
aid and Scholarships. 
Includes Scholarships 
and local classes. 



96 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

Reading. Oxfordshire also maintains a system of migratory 
instruction, and in this case the members of staff concerned 
appear as external lecturers of University College, Reading, 
in accordance with the arrangement explained previously 
on p. 68. The College also undertakes by agreement to 
render specified services in connexion with lectures and 
experiments. A similar practice prevails in Buckingham- 
shire. Berkshire discontinued some years ago its system 
of migratory teaching. A county instructor is at present 
associated with the staff of University College, and works 
in the College laboratories; but the general policy of the 
County Council in regard to agricultural instruction is now 
under consideration. Both Wilts and Dorset carry on 
migratory work, but as already stated, these counties are 
not at present associated with the College at Reading. 

It appears to us that the principles which should govern 
the organisation of agricultural education, as between the 
College and the neighbouring County Councils, admit of 
clear statement, and, except perhaps in some points of 
detailed application, are such as must meet with general 
acceptance. The function of a collegiate centre, recognised 
by the Board of Agriculture, in relation to a given area 
is to provide, according to its means, the highest kind of 
agricultural education and research. When in 1890, the 
Board of Agriculture, acting in virtue of the Board of 
Agriculture Act of 1889, first undertook the organisation 
of agricultural education, it deliberately decided to create 
collegiate centres which should discharge this important 
function. "It was decided that the first thing to be done 
was to build up a series of central institutions, capable on 
the one hand of giving instruction, and on the other of 
conducting agricultural experiments and taking such other 
steps for enlisting the interest and support of the 
agricultural community in their work as might seem to 

be desirable The broad result has been 

that most parts of the country have been provided with 
institutions capable of furnishing higher instruction in 
agriculture."* Any scheme of agricultural education, 

* Annual Report, 1910 [Cd. 5388] pp. v — vi. 



EXTERNAL POLICY. 
RELATIONS WITH COUNTIES. 97 

organised within the area of its influence whether by a 
local or national authority, which failed to recognise the 
existence of the collegiate centre and its function, which 
failed to relate all forms of agricultural education to the 
centre and to ensure co-operation with it, would inevitably 
lead to duplication, waste of effort, and from the rate- 
payer's point of view, waste of money. On this point, 
which has recently gained a fresh and serious importance 
owing to the division of responsibility for agricultural 
education between the Boards of Agriculture and Edu- 
cation, we may quote from the Resolution adopted in 
March 1909, by the Rural Education Conference held in 
London, and also by the Central Chamber of Agriculture, 
and by the Farmers' Club. " That each group of counties 
shouldbeconnected with an Agricultural College or Institute 
equipped with an efficient staff and apparatus for giving 
the higher forms of agricultural instruction, both practical 
and scientific. That the Local Education Authorities 
should provide scholarships for continuing the education 
of young men from the Secondary School at such 
Institutions. That a portion of the staff of the Institution 
should be available for peripatetic instruction in the 
adjoining counties. That the Institution should be 
supported by contributions from the counties as well as 
from the Central Department, and that experimental 
farms and stations should be maintained in connexion 
with each College or Institute."* 

Earlier in our Report we described the College at 
Guelph as " the capital centre for teaching, for experiment, 
for expert knowledge, and for constructive ideas " in 
agricultural education in the province of Ontario, (see 
p. 29.) Allowing for every difference of circumstance, 
it appears to us that this description indicates the ideal 
function of the English agricultural College or Department 
in relation to its region. 

Admitting, however, the importance of recognising, 
aiding, and using the agricultural college as the "head and 
centre" of agricultural education within its area, it is 

* Board of Agriculture Annual Report, 1909. [Cd. 4802] p. 150. 



98 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

probable that some County Councils will always wish to 
carry on certain kinds of less advanced agricultural 
instruction under their direct and undivided control. Work 
of this kind is at present undertaken in many counties, 
including, as already noticed, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, 
and Buckinghamshire. The co-ordination of such work 
with the work carried on by the collegiate centre at 
Reading should not present difficulty, but if either is to 
be effective the co-ordination must be real and living. 
Both the collegiate centre and the county instructors 
should be active ; but their activity should not be carried 
on in ignorance of, or in rivalry with, one another. This 
is not the place to prescribe in detail the exact character 
of such schemes of co-ordination. What is needed in 
each case is a treaty the terms and aim of which are 
periodically reviewed. Hence arises the suggestion of a 
Joint Committee, the desirability of which was so strongly 
enforced by the Departmental Committee on Agricultural 
Education. Their Report [Cd. 4206 p. 37] urged "that, 
so far as control by local authorities is concerned, the 
organisation and supervision of agricultural instruction 
should always be entrusted either to a special committee, 
or to a sub-committee reporting direct to the education 
committee of the county council, and consisting princi- 
pally of agriculturists and of representatives of the 
college to which the county may be affiliated." We are 
of opinion that if agricultural education is to be 
developed successfully in the region under consideration, 
and if the resources of the Department of Reading are 
to be utilised to the best advantage, this principal of joint- 
consultation should be further extended. At present the 
Director of the Agricultural Department serves as a 
member of the Advisory Committee of the Hampshire 
Education Committee, while the Principal of the College, 
a member of Council, and the Agricultural Director 
serve as members of the Agricultural Sub-Committee of 
the Berkshire Education Committee. No similar 
arrangement prevails in regard to Oxfordshire and Buck- 
inghamshire. The Council of University College, 



EXTERNAL POLICY. 
RELATIONS WITH COUNTIES. 99 

Reading, includes representatives of all four counties, but 
this arrangement, though of the highest general value, 
does not secure special consultation with regard to 
agricultural education in a particular county. The 
practice, again, by which county instructors in agriculture 
in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire are appointed by 
the County Councils in consultation with the College 
and take rank as members of the College staff is 
excellent as far as it goes,* but the contact with the 
agricultural Department at Reading can only be made 
effective by frequent interchange of visits and by 
periodical conferences. In the case of Berkshire, where 
a similar arrangement prevails, the county instructor is 
able to use the College laboratories, and contact is easier 
owing to both the College and the County Council head- 
quarters being situated in the same town. The intimate 
association between the county instructors in Ontario and 
the College at Guelph is a valuable precedent of a sound 
method of organisation, (see p. 38). 

In conclusion upon this point, we desire to urge 
most strongly the importance both to County Councils and 
to the College at Reading of taking all possible measures 
to secure a thorough co-operation and understanding in 
the work of agricultural education. That work is by 
common consent beset with peculiar difficulties ; and it 
cannot be undertaken with any real prospect of success 
unless all available resources are brought to bear, and are 
directed in obedience to a well-understood scheme of 
organisation. This argument leads irresistibly to the 
idea of associating several counties in support of a 
common scheme, and upon this point some general 
proposals will be found in the next section. "It is 
assumed that these higher institutions (i.e. collegiate 
centres of agricultural teaching) will serve a group of 
counties." 

(3) Institution of an Extension Section. 

The branches of extension work already in existence 

* It is specially commended in the Report of the Departmental Committee 

[Cd. 4206] p. 24. 



loo AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

at University College, Reading, include (a) the analysis of 
soils, manures, feeding-stuffs, water, etc. (6) seed testing 
(r) the identification of insect and fungoid pests, and 
advice by letter as to treatment (^) advice on questions 
relating to dairy produce, and agriculture generally 
(e) occasional lectures to farmers' clubs, and similar 
organisations, on agricultural topics (J^) judging and 
demonstrations at agricultural shows (g) organisation of 
vacation courses for rural teachers and others. All 
this work has to be carried on by members of staff 
already immersed in teaching duties, and consequently 
it has never been possible to develop it with freedom. 
But the College realises that nothing would invigorate its 
work more quickly or more thoroughly than an 
augmentation of the staff resources for extension work. 
From what has already been said, it will be evident that 
all extension work should be carried on in consultation 
with farmers' organisations, and in co-operation with the 
county education authorities. The principle which is 
practised in reference to the Farmers' Institutes in Ontario 
might be followed with advantage. The College should 
put forward its list of lecturers and their subjects, 
and the selection of centres should be guided by the 
recommendations of local farmers and of the county 
education authorities. 

The external work of the agricultural Department 
is a factor of such vital importance in gaining the 
confidence of farmers that, in our opinion, a special 
section of the Department should at the earliest possible 
date be established to deal with it. Two conditions in 
organisation are imperative if the work is to be developed 
and conducted successfully. First, the staffing resources 
of the Department must admit of the extension work 
receiving adequate attention. The lecturers and others 
employed must not only be competent for their work, 
but they must be able to give to it the time it demands 
without detriment to the internal efficiency of the 
Department. It is folly to distract a lecturer with outside 
duties if he is already fully burdened with internal teaching 



EXTERNAL POLICY. EXTENSION SECTION. loi 

duties ; and it is also folly to send out men to address 
farmers who are not able, owing to other claims or to 
insufficient special training, to give them the best 
information. These observations suggest the appointment 
of additional members to the staff for the main purpose 
of representing the College in external work. Each of 
these new members should be a master of some 
one section of agriculture, or of agricultural science. 
As instances of sections, for which experts should be 
appointed, we may mention grass-land, cereals, green 
crops, soils and manures, feeding stuffs and dairy produce, 
fruit, insect diseases, and fungoid diseases. It is only 
when given a restricted field of this kind that a man can 
make himself really an authority on his work, and that 
he can acquire that well-founded confidence so essential 
to one who will be called upon to advise practical men. 
Moreover, it is upon the provision of such an extension 
staff that we must rely if we desire to enroll farmers in 
large numbers in support of science and to make the 
College a powerful intellectual centre of country life. 
Any such scheme would be expensive, and quite beyond 
the resources of the College, or of any one county. If, 
however, a group of six counties were to combine to 
support the extension scheme, they would gain the great 
advantage of the services of an efficient staff of specialists.* 

It is probable that after the extension work has 
developed, a special officer should be appointed who 

* Annual Report of the Board of Agriculture, 1910, [Cd. 5388] p. vi. It may 
be of interest to outline here the proposals which University College, Reading, has 
submitted to the Board of Agriculture in connexion with the Development Fund 
Schemes for agricultural education and research, (i) Grants are asked for to 
make possible the following researches and undertakings (a) an inquiry into the 
micro-flora of the chief English cheeses at different stages of ripening, beginning 
with Stilton cheese (b) the raising of improved types of cereals by the methods of 
"selection" (c) an inquiry into the "hardiness" of apple trees (d) research 
in dairy chemistry (e) an inquiry into the relation of air and soil temperature to 
the yield of certain crops, more particularly wheat. (2) grants are also asked for 
to make possible the provision of the nucleus of an extension staff of highly trained 
specialists, each of whom would deal with a single section of agriculture or 
agricultural science, and all of whom would devote their main energy to work in 
the counties associated with University College. In the first instance, the sections 
represented would probably be Soils and Manures, Feeding Stuffs and Dairy 
Produce, Grass Land, Cereals, and Dairy Farming. 



I02 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

should be responsible under the Director for all arrange- 
ments in connexion with outside work. The work 
involves much correspondence and negotiation, and we 
think that if it is to be efficiently performed, a member of 
staff, himself a trained agriculturist, should be appointed 
to give it continuous supervision. The library system 
also would require to be strengthened and developed. 

In the event of the College undertaking extension 
work, other than purely agricultural, this Extension 
Section might without difficulty be enlarged so as to 
include a wider scope of activity. 



Summary of Suggestions and Concluding Remarks. 

Holding most strongly that the time has arrived for 
the adoption of an energetic policy of development in 
agricultural education and research at University College, 
Reading, we have outlined in the foregoing Report the 
main features of such a policy. Our suggestions have 
been founded upon our experience and knowledge of the 
actual conditions which prevail in England and at 
Reading, but we have also been influenced at many points 
by our study of agricultural education in Canada and in 
the United States. The views and suggestions put 
forward may be thus summarised, (i) The problem of 
agricultural development at Reading is two-fold, internal 
and external. Hitherto the internal problem has rightly 
received most attention ; but the time has now come 
when the external problem demands comprehensive 



SUMMARY OF SUGGESTIONS. 103 

treatment. (2) The staff of the department should be 
strengthened ; appointments should be governed by two 
main considerations, high personal calibre and speciali- 
sation of teaching or research function. Personnel 
determines efficiency. (3) University College, Reading, 
should control its main courses of agricultural and 
horticultural instruction, both syllabuses and examinations. 
(4) The existing scheme of courses of study is satis- 
factory, but more attention should be given to the case 
of long-course students and post-graduate students, and to 
vacation courses for teachers and others. (5) Pure 
science should be taught principally in the later stage of 
the agricultural course, the earlier stages being given a 
stronger bias towards " practical " work than is the case 
at present. (6) The standards of admission for students 
should gradually be raised, and students should be required 
either to show previous experience of farm-work or to gain 
such experience during their course. (7) The College 
Farm should answer three main purposes ; it should be 
educational, it should develop its experimental side, and it 
should specialise in dairying. The Fruit Station should 
be maintained. (8) Experiments and research should be 
systematically planned, partly in reference to local needs 
and partly in reference to the special aptitudes of members 
of the staff. (9) Growth will necessitate additional 
buildings, among which it would be desirable to include 
an agricultural Museum and a Machinery Hall. (10) As 
regards external work, the situation of the College at the 
heart of a great agricultural region gives it a notable 
opportunity. Local conditions should be carefully 
studied ; and every attempt should be made to secure the 
sympathetic interest of farmers. Increased support 
should be sought from County Councils, and the position 
of the College as the recognised collegiate centre for 
higher agricultural education in south-central England 
should be made more real and effective by means of care- 
fully organised schemes of joint-action with the several 
County Councils. Lastly, in order to enable the external 
work to be properly undertaken and performed, and to 



I04 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

mark the opening of a new chapter of external activity, 
an Extension Section of the Department of Agriculture 
at Reading should be organised with as little delay as 
possible. 

The recommendations, thus enumerated, constitute 
no more than the outline of a policy. If the policy 
commends itself to the Council of University College, 
Reading, it will be the task of others to fill in the outline, 
and to convert general recommendations into definite and 
practical proposals. Our own duty is discharged (in 
respect of the agricultural reference) now that we have 
given an account of our visits to Canadian and American 
institutions, and have reviewed the problem at Reading 
in the light of past experience and new knowledge. 
We have indicated where in our opinion the Agricultural 
Department of the College should be further strengthened, 
and we have pointed out the great opportunity which 
lies before it. 



We are, however, unwilling to conclude the 
agricultural and main section of our Report without 
reference to the underlying question of finance. It is 
futile to talk of opportunity and development unless a 
successful effort is made simultaneously to provide the 
indispensable ways and means. The Council of 
University College, Reading, cannot possibly do more on 
their existing resources than they are doing at the present 
moment. Already they carry on their work at a heavy 
annual loss, and were it not for the fact that the support 
accorded to the College by the State and by public bodies 
has been nobly supplemented by private munificence, 
the University College and its Agricultural Department, 
if they existed at all, would be negligible factors. Unless 
the splendid growth of eighteen years is to be jeopardized, 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 105 

the resources of the College must be extended. There 
can be no development on a stationary income. The 
greatest opportunity which has ever presented itself for 
advancing agricultural education in south-central England 
will be lost unless at the critical moment help is forth- 
coming to enable it to be grasped. There are three 
principal sources from which that help may be derived : 
private donors, County Councils, and the State. The 
donors who have done so much to bring University 
College, Reading, to its present strength and reputation 
may surely hope that a wider group of leading residents 
in the surrounding counties will now come forward to 
aid in securing for the institution not only stability, but 
a career of extended usefulness. The resident in Buck- 
inghamshire or Hampshire will not be asked to contribute 
money to a College with which his county has no 
concern. His contribution will bring — he can stipulate 
that it shall bring — direct benefit to the agriculture and 
agricultural education of his county. If by one act both 
College and county can be benefited, the appeal to local 
public spirit should not be made in vain. As regards 
help from County Councils, our views have already been 
expressed. We advise that the College should vigorously 
press its claims for consideration upon all Local Education 
Authorities ; that it should seek conference with them ; 
and that every effort should be made to keep the members 
of the County Councils and the public acquainted with its 
work and aims. Lastly, there is the question of State aid. 
The present inadequacy of State aid to all forms of Uni- 
versity education is an admitted and lamentable fact. In 
no direction is that inadequacy more grave than in reference 
to higher education in agriculture. The Report of the 
Departmental Committee on Agriculture [Cd. 4206] 
claims for the State " the credit of having, by its policy, 
created a desire for (agricultural) knowledge." (p. 8). 
But if the State led the way, it has subsequently lagged 
behind. For the Report also declares that " evidence 
from all (institutions) tends to show that their funds are 
quite inadequate for the work which lies ready at hand." 



io6 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

(p. I 2). On a later page in the same Report the funds avail- 
able for agricultural instruction are declared to be "wholly 
inadequate for maintaining that work efficiently." The 
Committee add that " they are of opinion that, 
irrespective of further developments, further means 
should be provided for this purpose." (p. 33). They 
conclude with the following declaration : " It is therefore 
obvious that the principal, if not the only, source from 
which the balance of the funds required can be obtained 
is the national exchequer." (p. 34). The Board of 
Agriculture, it is understood, have now larger funds at 
their disposal, and there may be some hope that grants 
which, Hke that made by the Board to the College at 
Reading, have remained stationary for a long period, 
may before long be raised. It remains to be seen 
how far the funds of the Development Commissioners 
will be available for the furtherance of educational and 
research work such as that carried on by the Agricultural 
Department at Reading. It is, indeed, high time that 
something was done in earnest to strengthen such 
institutions and those who work in them and for them. 
A member of the Moseley Commission of 1903 after 
inspecting the agricultural work of the Guelph College 
in Ontario and hearing of the annual grants given 
in aid of that College by the Government of the 
Province (see p. 21), was moved to describe the maximum 
grants of the Board of Agriculture in aid of the 
corresponding institutions at home as " grotesque."* 
The word is not too strong. Canada and the United 
States are setting standards in agricultural education which 
we cannot ignore or belittle. We believe that there is 
only one respect in which the competition between 
ourselves and them is unequal. In personnel, in energy, 
in ability the old country holds her own. But she is 
behindhand in the generosity inspired by faith. The 
sums doled out to Universities and University Colleges 
and Agricultural Departments are not only much smaller 
than those given for similar purposes in other countries, 

* Moseley Education Commission Report p. 298. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 107 

but good work is left undone, opportunities are lost, 
efficiency is retarded and impaired through sheer want of 
the necessary ways and means. University College, 
Reading, is only one of many institutions of its order 
which find their future, almost their existence, menaced by 
the inadequacy of revenue. It would almost seem that 
the time has come when a national association of the 
" Friends of University Education " should be formed 
with the object of taking measures to convince Ministers, 
Members of Parliament, the Press, and the Public, 
before it is too late, of the imperative necessity of making 
more liberal State grants to Universities and Colleges if 
we are to give students of intelligence the education and 
training they need, if we are to retain in the service of 
knowledge men of experience and power, and if Britain 
is to hold her place among the nations.* 

* It may be useful to observe here that at Reading local munificence has been 
conspicuous, has been encouraged by State recognition of the progress accomplished, 
and, together with that progress, has been such as amply to justify a confident 
hope that further liberality from the State will be forthcoming. The public 
recognition of worth and effectiveness implied in the award of Treasury and 
other government grants has been an indispensable antecedent condition of each 
of the considerable private benefactions which have been received by University 
College, Reading, in the last few years. Only the chief instances need be 
mentioned. These instances are — the gift of a new College site; four donations 
of ;^io,ooo, j(^io,ooo, j^6,ooo, and ^^3,000 to the Building Fund ; the gift of 
an endowment (^^5 0,000) on condition that the College maintained its status as 
a University College ; the gift of Wantage Hall, and its endowment ; recent 
anonymous donations to discharge College indebtedness amounting to nearly 
j^30,ooo ; and the purchase (through enabling donations amounting to ^^4,000) 
of five acres of land. These gifts, as well as an incalculable amount of personal 
effort, have been given in the reasonable belief that as the effectiveness of the 
College grows, so the volume of State assistance will grow also. 



io8 OTHER UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENTS. 

PART XL OTHER ASPECTS OF UNIVERSITY 

DEVELOPMENT. 

A. 

Note on Libraries. 

In their Annual Report for the year 1908-9 to the 
Court of Governors, the Council of University College, 
Reading, thus referred to their College Library: "It has 
been evident for some time past that the Library cannot 
indefinitely be housed in its adapted and inadequate 
quarters in the Acacias Building. The Library is greatly 
used by students of all Faculties and Departments, and it 
is often overcrowded. It cannot conveniently, nor perhaps 
safely, be made to accommodate very many more books. 
When it is remembered that there is no part of educational 
provision more absolutely vital for serious students than a 
comprehensive, well-ordered, and spacious library, the 
Council are encouraged to hope that before long the roll of 
munificent gifts to the College may be lengthened (as 
recently at Sheffield University) by the gift and foundation 
of a permanent and worthy library building. Whoever 
made so noble a gift would have the certainty and 
satisfaction of knowing that he was ministering in 
perpetuity, and in the most direct and helpful way, to the 
needs of a steadily growing body of earnest students upon 
whom the disabiUties mentioned are beginning to press, 
and will press with increasing weight." 

The nucleus of a Library was formed soon after the 
foundation of the College in 1892. Growth was at first 
very slow. In 1 900 the number of volumes was only 1,715. 
It is now upwards of 7,000. The collection is good, as far 
as it goes, for the books have been carefully chosen; but the 
branches of study and research pursued in a University 
College are so numerous that a Library of these dimensions 
must inevitably be characterised by most serious deficiencies. 
No large bequest or donation has ever been received 
wherewith to provide a generous supply of standard works 
in all departments of study. The funds at the disposal of 
the Council for Library purposes vary from £1 S^ ^° iC^oo 



LIBRARIES. 



109 



a year,* apart from expenditure on Library administration, 
and are quite inadequate to meet the pressing needs of the 
College. The Library staffconsists of a Librarian (honorary) , 
and a Superintendent and Assistant (both paid). The 
Library occupies the upper floor of the Acacias Building 
(formerly a private residence), and one or two adjacent 
rooms. The disposition of the rooms and the arrange- 
ment of the books in them are attractive and interesting, 
but the accommodation, alike for books and for readers, 
is at the present time severely strained. Not more than 
50 persons can use the Library at one time without much 
inconvenience resulting, and no more space is available. 

It will be evident from these particulars that the 
Library question at Reading is both serious and urgent. 
It discloses the weakest part in the development of the 
College as a University institution. It might not be 
reasonable to urge that a College founded as recently as 
1892 should possess already a collection of books equal to 
those found at Liverpool, Manchester, or Birmingham, 
where the totals of volumes vary from about 50,000 to 
over 120,000. But it is pertinent to notice that the 
Library at Reading is at present the smallest Library to 
be found at any of the new Universities and University 
Colleges, and that its financial resources are the least. No 
University institution can rest content with a poor library, 
for such a weakness means depriving advanced students of 
necessary books, particularly the literary student to whom 
a library is in truth a laboratory, and it means denying to 
professors and lecturers engaged in research the inestimable 
boon of having a good library of reference on the spot. 
In a recent report, President Lowell, of Harvard University, 
described the Harvard Library as " the principal workshop 
of the University." 

During our tour in Canada and the United States, 
therefore, we gave such attention as was possible to the 
Libraries of the institutions visited. The following brief 
notes relate to the Libraries at the McGill University, 

* Of this sum, about £jo has to be expended on periodical publications, binding, 
and minor equipment. 



no OTHER UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENTS. 

Macdonald College, Toronto University, and Cornell 
University. 

McGill University Library^ Montreal. 

In 1 89 1 Mr. Peter Redpath (i 821- 1894), Senior 
Governor of McGill University and already one of its 
chief benefactors, addressed a letter to the Chancellor of 
the University in which he announced his intention " to 
make provision for all the requirements of a University 
Library." The new building was opened on October 31, 
1894, by Their Excellencies the Governor General of 
Canada and the Countess of Aberdeen. 

Mr. Redpath, in presenting his gift to the University, 
observed that it had been planned after careful study of 
many of the best libraries then existing. The building is 
of Montreal limestone, and all construction is as nearly 
fire-proof as possible. "The style adopted is a free 
treatment of Romanesque." The internal accommodation 
includes (i) reading room, iio feet long, 43 feet wide, 
and 44 feet high. (2) librarian's room and cataloguing 
room."'' (3) periodicals room. (4) professors' room. 
(5) muniment room. (6) five seminar rooms for 
special studies. (7) book-stack. The architect's des- 
cription of the book-stack system, an almost universal 
feature of modern libraries in Canada and in the United 
States, may be quoted : " The books are placed by 
themselves in a large, lofty chamber, well lighted from 
two or more sides, and sometimes also from the top. 
This chamber is made absolutely fireproof, and is cut off 
by fireproof doors from the rest of the building. It is 
divided into several storeys by open gratings, or by iron 
and thick, rough, plate-glass ; these storeys are generally 
not more than 7 feet to 8 feet high, so that the librarians 
can reach any book on the shelves without the aid of a 
ladder. The book-cases are generally of iron, with shelves 
sometimes of iron and sometimes of wood. Access is 
obtained to the different storeys by light iron stairs, 
either straight or circular. . . . This stack-room has four 

*At the time of our visit, the University Librarian, Mr. Charles H. Gould, 
B.A., was assisted by a staff of eight persons. 



LIBRARIES. 



1 1 1 



storeys, with straight stairs, and a lift for books ; on each 
storey there is a wide bay window, for privileged readers, 
where they can consult any of the books on the spot, and 
not obstruct the passage-ways between the books." 

Since 1893 the Library building at McGill University 
has been considerably enlarged. It contained in 1893 
about 35,000 volumes. One who took part in the 
opening ceremony observed that " a great institution like 
this should have a library of over 100,000 volumes at 
least." In the Annual Report of the Governors, Principal, 
and Fellows of McGill University for 1908-09, the total 
number of volumes is given as 123,088 ; and the number 
of additions for the year as 4,856. In the same year the 
expenditure on the Library, "for books, &c." (i.e. 
exclusive of the cost of the Library Staff and the 
maintenance of the fabric) was equivalent to £i,2yo. It 
should be noted that the Library possesses endowments.* 

Macdonald College Library^ St. Anne de Bellevue. 

Macdonald College is a new institution, and its 
Library is not important as a collection of books. It deserves 
notice, however, because within modest limits its quarters 
and their arrangement could hardly be improved. The 
Library, and the Assembly Hall above it, constitute a large 
projecting wing of the Main Building. The library 
accommodation consists of a reading room and book-stack 
with administrative offices. The dimensions of the 
reading room are approximately 75 feet by 60 feet ; 
height about 16 feet. The visitor, entering the reading 
room by the main door in the middle of the southern 
end, sees at the opposite end a counter, to which books are 
brought from the book-stack beyond for distribution to 
the readers. The reading room itself is divided by two 
rows of columns, which support the flat recessed ceiling, 
into three parts. Down the middle is a broad space in 
which are arranged two rows of four tables each for 
students. On either side beyond the columns is a series 

* Numerous particulars in this section are taken from the Report of the 
Governors, &c. just mentioned, and from the published account of proceedings at 
the opening of the McGill University Library in 1893. 



112 OTHER UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENTS. 

of five alcoves or compartments, each lighted by a large 
window and separated from its neighbours by bookcases six 
feet high, and provided with a table for study. All 
wooden fittings, furniture, and panelling, are of oak, or oak- 
veneer. The bookcases forming the walls of alcoves, with 
their returns on each side, enable a large number of books 
to be kept in the reading room itself. The book-stack 
presents no features of special interest. The arrangements 
for filing pamphlets are excellent. 

Thus the Library at Macdonald College affords some 
useful suggestions in general design, but in the event of a 
new library being built at Reading, some additional 
provision would be requisite, particularly in respect of 
seminar rooms. 

Toronto University Library. 

At the date of our visit to Toronto University, the 
Library was in the builders' hands. An important 
extension was being made. This extension includes [a) 
a stack-room which will enable 250,000 volumes to be 
stored, or about twice as many as the present number of 
volumes in the Library ; [b) administrative ofiices, 
cataloguing room, &c.; and [c) a reading room (about 
60 feet by 30) for professors. At Toronto, men students 
and women students have separate reading rooms. On the 
top floor of the new building, there are about twelve 
seminar rooms, while the University Press and a book- 
bindery are given quarters in the basement. The Report 
of the Board of Governors of Toronto University for the 
year ending 30th June 1909 shews (pp. 63, 65, 69 — 70) 
that expenditure on the Library for 1908 — 9 was 
equivalent to about ^^^ojj. Details were as follows : 
maintenance of building /'197; books and periodicals, 
&c. ^^2,880. The Librarian and his staff of ten persons 
accounted, in addition, for an expenditure of about ^ 1,680. 

Cornell University Library. 

The Library occupies a commanding position at the 
south-west corner of the campus, and its lofty tower is 
conspicuous among the University buildings. The 



LIBRARIES. 113 

Library building was presented and endowed* in 1891 
by the Hon. Henry W. Sage upon the twenty-fourth 
anniversary of the founding of the University. 

The extreme dimensions of the building are 170 feet 
by 153 feet. "The general outlines are somewhat in the 
form of a cross, the book-stacks occupying the southern 
and western arms, the reading rooms the eastern, while 
the northern provides accommodation for the offices of 
administration, the White Library, and seven seminary 
rooms." The building is of stone, and is fireproof. Apart 
from porch, entrance hall, and cloak rooms, it includes 
(a) general reading room, 126 feet by 66 feet. Seats are 
provided for 220 readers, allowing to each a desk 2 feet 
by 2 feet 10 inches. Around the walls are cases for 
a permanent reference library of 8,000 volumes, within 
reach of all readers. At one end is the delivery desk, 
communicating with the stack-rooms. (b) periodicals 
room, 50 feet by 21. There are wall bookcases with 
capacity for 6,750 volumes. [c) Librarian's room and 
cataloguing room (45 feet by 22). [d) the President 
White Historical Library, disposed in a special room, on 
the alcove system, with galleries. (e) seminar rooms 
for Philosophy, European History, American History, 
Classics, Modern Languages, English, and Economics. 
Each seminar room has its own set of reference books. 
[f) book-stacks (south and west) with capacity for 
400,000 volumes, the whole building having capacity for 
475,000 volumes. The stacks are divided into seven 
stories, each seven feet high, and the fall of the ground 
made it possible so to build them that the delivery desk in 
the general reading room is at the vertical middle of the 
stacks. Hence " in either stack the most distant book is 
only 120 feet from the centre of the delivery desk." 
{g) basement, containing newspaper stacks and patent 
collections, an open-shelf circulating library, and a lecture 
room with seating capacity for 240 persons. 

*The endowment was nearly ^^60,000, " the income to be used only for the 
purchase of books." We were informed that the total endowment is now about 

£\6o,ooo. 



1 14 OTHER UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENTS. 

The Library is open from 8 a.m. to 10.45 P-^'^- 
It appears to be greatly used, and to be admirably 
administered. The members of the Deputation who 
inspected it were much indebted to the courtesy of the 
University Librarian, Mr. G. W. Harris, Ph. B. 

The Librarian's Report for 1908-9 states that the 
Library then contained 369,051 volumes, and 55,000 
pamphlets. Additions during the year had included 
15,413 volumes and 2,000 pamphlets. In regard to 
finance, " the sum available for the increase of the 
Library" in 1909-10 was about ^^3, 480. About /^8 40 
is spent on periodicals alone. The Librarian mentions 
that a course of lectures is regularly given on the use of 
books, and another course on general bibliography. The 
Library is administered by a special Council, consisting of 
the President of the University, a member of the Board 
of Trustees, 4 representatives of the University Faculty, 
and the Librarian. The Library Staff includes the 
Librarian and about 20 assistants.* 

The University also possesses the Goldwin Smith 
Hall Library, the Law Library, and the Barnes Reference 
Library, which are separately housed. 

Concluding Observations. 

It is scarcely the duty of the Deputation to recom- 
mend to the Council a particular policy with regard to 
the existing Library at University College, Reading, or 
with regard to the erection of a new Library building. 
Our opportunities for inquiry were necessarily limited, 
and in the event of the project of a new Library being 
undertaken at Reading, the whole subject should receive 
further and thorough investigation. We content ourselves 
with calling attention to several points, the importance of 
which was suggested to us, or reinforced, by our inspections. 

We endorse to the full all that has been said in 
the Report of the Council of University College, 

*Many particulars in this section have been obtained from the Cornell University 
Register, 1909-10; the Librarian's Report 1908-9; and from the published 
report of " Exercises at the opening of the Library Building, Cornell University, 

i8qi." 



LIBRARIES. 115 

Reading, mentioned at the beginning of this section, 
concerning the urgency and seriousness of the Library 
question. It is proved by experience at Reading 
and elsewhere that a University institution is at a 
grave disadvantage unless it possesses a really ample 
and comprehensive Library: while, on the other hand, the 
possession of such a Library strengthens the work and 
attractiveness of the institution at every point. Further, 
we attach importance to the following considerations: (a) 
The Library should occupy a central position in relation 
to the departmental buildings of the College. {i>) It 
should include a large reading room, within which should 
be kept, accessible to readers, an ample collection of 
reference and other books, (c) The fire-proof book-stack 
system should be adopted as a means of storing con- 
veniently and safely the books not placed in the reading 
rooms. (^) There should be a room for the special use 
of professors and lecturers. (e') There should be a 
room for periodicals, and rooms for seminar and special 
studies. ( /') There should be good office accommodation 
for the Library staff. 

We recognise that the provision of a Library with 
these features would be a costly undertaking, but 
we are of opinion that the problem will not otherwise be 
ultimately solved. We do not overlook the fact that the 
maintenance of such a Library would be a considerable 
annual charge, apart from cost of books, and we 
therefore hope that in building it care would be taken to 
restrict the sum spent on structure to the lowest reasonable 
dimensions, and to reserve if possible a substantial sum in 
order to secure a permanent income from endowment. 



1 16 OTHER UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENTS. 

B. 

Note on the Teaching of Domestic Science to 
Women in Canada. 

In the Universities of Canada, and also in those of 
the United States, much attention is now given to the 
training of v^omen in Domestic or Household Science, or 
" Home Economics." The object aimed at can be 
stated simply. It is to improve the standards and 
conditions of life in the home. Skill in the art of 
managing a household is the outcome not merely of 
happy personal accident — though the personal element 
must always count for much — but also of right know- 
ledge and right principles of application ; in other words 
of right training. Everywhere, both in the old countries 
and in the new, home-making is " the largest single 
industry"; it is a province within which women are 
supreme; and hence there is a wise tendency in educational 
policy, in England as in America, to pay increased heed 
to these considerations in planning the education of girls 
and women. The difficulty of obtaining domestic 
servants in Canada and the United States invests the 
problem in those countries with peculiar significance. 
The competency of the wife and mother, of the woman 
housekeeper, is nowhere a more important condition of 
social happiness and well-being than in scattered rural 
communities. Accordingly, just as Agricultural Colleges 
have arisen in America with the object of training men 
to be better farmers, so Institutes and Departments of 
Home Science have arisen more recently with the object 
of training women to be better home-makers. Thus at 
Guelph, " the Home Economics Department has two 
objects in view. The one to bring to the vocation of 
home-making the same kind of help which the Ontario 
Agricultural College brings to the business of farming ; 
the other to provide for the adequate training of teachers 
of Home Science for our public schools." 

We found provision for the training of women in 
Home Science at most of the institutions visited. Our 
opportunities, however, for close investigation of its 



DOMESTIC SCIENCE. 117 

character and scope, were restricted to two Canadian 
instances, those of Macdonald and Guelph ; and it may 
be noted that in each case the provision had been made 
possible by the munificence of Sir WilUam Macdonald, 
in pursuance of his policy for rural betterment—" better 
farmers, better wives, and better teachers."* 
The School of Household Science at Macdonald CoHege^ 

The School occupies part of the Main Building. 
Students of Household Science receive instruction in 
Chemistry, Physics, and other scientific and applied 
subjects, in the College departments. The accommodation 
special to themselves is as follows ; {a) two class kitchens 
equipped for 56 students, with a pantry attached, and 
also a small dining room for lessons in table-setting 
and waiting {b) class laundry for 24 students (f) 
hand-sewing room for 30 students [d) dressmaking 
and millinery rooms {e) house-decoration room (/ ) 
offices for instructors, store rooms {g) model apart- 
ments consisting of two bedrooms, bath room, dining 
room, living room, kitchen, and pantries, intended to 
afford facilities for practical work in housekeeping. 

The School is admirably planned and equipped. In 
liberality of space, number of rooms, excellence and 
ingenuity of fittings and appliances, the standards appeared 
to us to be altogether beyond the customary standards in 
England. Cooking is taught by coal-fire, gas, and 
electricity, and by the " fireless cooker." The last 
consists of a chest in three compartments, each containing 
a vessel packed in cushions of asbestos wool or a similar 
non-conductor. A chicken put into boiling water is 
cooked in one of these vessels in six hours. Each student 
in the kitchen has a small gas stove before her on the 
bench, and, in the bench also, a private drawer tor 
smaller utensils, and a second drawer and a small cupboard 
which she shares with her neighbour, for utensils ot 
larger size. The pantry, which is beautifully tiled, 
contains a large refrigerator constructed of opalescent 
glass framed in nickelled metal. The laundry is fitted 

* See previously pp. 1 2, 20- 



ii8 OTHER UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENTS. 

with fixed tubs of glazed earthenware and a drying cup- 
board. There are wringers and a mangle, but no other 
washing machinery. Irons are heated by electricity for 
convenience,* but there is a stove for teaching purposes. 
The house-decoration room contains samples of wall 
papers, carpets, and fabrics. The model apartments are, 
in effect, a self-contained flat of attractive design. The 
Deputation were kindly invited by Miss Fisher, Acting 
Head of the School of Household Science, to take 
luncheon there. All arrangements, preparation of food, 
menu, decoration, serving, and waiting were carried out 
by students of the School, and were in a marked degree 
creditable. 

The staff of the School consists of the Acting Head, 
who is also Assistant Professor of Household Science, an 
Instructor in Sewing and Dressmaking, and two Instructors 
and an Assistant in Household Science. 

There are two main courses of instruction, (i) A 
two years' course for professional housekeepers. (2) A one 
year's course for "home-makers." 

(i) Candidates for admission to the housekeeper's 
course must not be less than 23 years of age, and they 
must have good health and a fair knowledge of English 
and Mathematics. Not more than 12 students are trained 
in the School at one time. The first year's work is 
similar to that of the Home-makers (see below). Any 
student who, after three months in the School, is considered 
to be unsuitable, is asked to withdraw. The second year 
is devoted to special work bearing on housekeeping for 
large numbers from a business point of view, and it 
includes much practical work, such as marketing and 
taking charge of stock rooms. Each student spends one 
month in the Women's Hall of Residence in order to 
gain practical experience under the Housekeeper, who 
provides for several hundred people at each meal. "The 

* In England it would probably be considered unpractical to accustom students 
to cook and heat by electricity. But it must be remembered that electric power 
IS much cheaper in Canada, and is being increasingly used there for domestic 

purposes. 



DOMESTIC SCIENCE. 119 

Professional Housekeeper's Certificate," awarded in 
connexion with this course, is not granted until the 
candidate has completed six months' successful work as a 
housekeeper at an institution. The certificates awarded 
do not qualify for teaching. 

(2) The " Home-maker's course " seeks to train 
girls for the duties of the home. It is therefore planned 
" to give the student a good foundation in the difi^erent 
branches of ordinary household work, supplemented by 
those scientific studies which have a bearing on the subjects 
of cookery, laundry, hygiene, &c. Above all, it is desired 
to awaken a girl's interest in the wider questions of sound 
bodies, wholesome dwellings, and comfortable lives." 
Candidates for admission to this course must be not less 
than I 8 years of age. The subjects taught are Cookery, 
Dairying, English, Home-nursing, Horticulture, House- 
hold furnishing. Household management. Sanitation, 
Laundry, Household handicraft. Millinery, Needlework, 
Physical training. Poultry, Practical Housekeeping in the 
Apartment (one week), and as much science as has a 
useful bearing on these subjects. The certificates awarded 
do not qualify for teaching. 

There are, in addition, shorter courses, (a) for 
Teachers. Instruction is given in simple cookery and 
needlework with the object of helping teachers to arouse 
an interest in household study amongst their pupils. 
(/?) for students who cannot stay in the College longer 
than three months. The training given is almost wholly 
practical, and three such courses are given yearly. 
Candidates must be not less than 1 8 years of age. No 
certificate is awarded. 

In admitting students to any of the courses, preference 
is given to candidates from the rural districts of the 
Province of Quebec, the Maritime Provinces, or Eastern 
Ontario. Tuition is free to residents in the Province of 
Quebec ; other Canadians pay £1 ^ ^ year, non-Canadians 
/320. There is a laboratory fee of £2. The fee for the 
short courses is ^^5, but these also are free to students 



1 20 OTHER UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENTS. 

belonging to the farming community of the Province 
of Quebec* 

I'he Department of Home Economics^ Guelph^ (Ontario 
^Agricultural College), 

The Department occupies the first floor and most of 
the ground floor of the Macdonald Institute, a massive 
building erected in 1905, the gift of Sir William 
Macdonald, in w^hich instruction is also given in Nature 
Study and Manual Training. The equipment, though 
excellent, is not so elaborate as at St. Anne's. On the 
other hand, it would appear that the students are of 
better quality than those at St. Anne's, and that the 
conditions of entrance are more severe. We w^ere 
indebted to Miss Watson, who directs the Department, 
for a very clear and interesting explanation of its 
work which she gave us at the time of our inspection. 
Miss Watson is assisted by a special staff of eight persons, 
namely. Instructors (3) in Normal Methods, Domestic 
Science, and Domestic Art ; Lecturers (2) in Physiology, 
Home Nursing, &c. ; Demonstrators (3) in Domestic 
Science, Laundry and Household Administration, and 
Domestic Art. 

The accommodation includes [a) two class kitchens 
equipped for 24 students {b) practice kitchen for 16 
[c] small dining room for lessons in table-setting and 
waiting [d^ pantry, cold storage rooms, offices, etc. 
(e) lecture rooms ^f) class laundry for 12 students 
(^) dress-making room for 14 students {h) sewing and 
millinery room for 18 students (y) model apartments, 
comprising two bedrooms, bath-room, living room, 
kitchen, and pantries, for practical work in housekeeping. 
The ordinary College departments supply scientific 
instruction. There is a library in the Institute intended 
specially for Home Economics students. 

Adjacent to the Institute is Macdonald Hall, a large 
building in Elizabethan style, erected in 1904 at a cost of 
about ^£20,000 by Sir William Macdonald. The Hall is 

* For further particulars as to the School of Household Science, see the Macdonald 
College Announcement for the current year. 



DOMESTIC SCIENCE. 121 

the women students' residence. It contains rooms for 
1 10 students, and also a gymnasium, dining room, 
reception room, and parlour. The proximity of Hall and 
Institute has proved highly advantageous in the organisa- 
tion of practical training in housekeeping. 

The courses of instruction provided by the Department 
are of two kinds (A) Professional (B) Non-professional. 

(A) The two Professional Courses each occupy two 
years. 

(i) V^rmal Course for Teachers. Candidates for 
admission come from the high schools ; they must be at 
least 18 years of age, and must have passed the Junior 
Matriculation, or Junior Leaving Examination, of the 
Province of Ontario. The object of the course is " to 
lay a thorough foundation for the special work of 
teaching Domestic Science in the schools of our country. 
The Institute cannot make the teacher ; it furnishes 
opportunities and favourable conditions to earnest students ; 
the rest lies with the student. Any woman entering 
upon it should have a healthy body and sound mind and 
a high moral purpose." A Teacher's Certificate in 
Domestic Science is awarded in connexion with the 
course. 

(2) The Housekeeper Qourse. The course is 
designed to aid those women who desire to become 
professional housekeepers. Only a few such students are 
received ; at the time of our visit the number was less 
than 1 2. Candidates for admission should be about 
30 years of age, of fair education and sound health, and 
should have had considerable experience in practical 
housework. The first year's work is the same as that 
for the Normal Course. The second year is devoted 
to training in institution management, and with this 
object each student is associated for a period with the 
management of the Women's Hall of Residence. At 
the end of the second year, a certificate is given to 
students who satisfy the prescribed tests, but the final 



122 OTHER UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENTS. 

certificate is not granted until proof is given of six 
months' successful experience as housekeeper of an 
institution. 

(B) The Home-maker Course is the chief of the 
non-professional courses. It occupies one year, and is 
intended for young women with little or no experience 
in household affairs. Candidates for admission must be 
at least ij years of age, and have passed the High School 
Entrance Examination or must satisfy a similar test. A 
Diploma is awarded. The following are the subjects of 
the course: — 



I period weekly 
6 „ 



I term 
I 



Lectures. 

2 periods weekly 



2 terms 



Physiology and Hygiene 

Plain Cooking 

Foods _ - - 

Sanitation - - - 

Household Administration 

Dietetics _ - - 

Child Study 

Home Ethics 

Art at Home 

Home Nursing and Emergencies i period 

Laundry - - - - 3 periods 

Sewing - - - - 4 ,, 

Practice Work - - - 7 „ 

English - - - - 2 ,, 

There are also three courses annually in Domestic 
Science, each occupying three months ; two courses 
annually in Advanced Sewing, of similar duration ; and 
certain optional courses. These shorter courses are 
popular with those who are about to marry. 

The following details in connexion with the Home- 
makers' course were specially noted. {a) An excellent 
series of printed cards informing the student of the 
necessary materials and the exact process to be followed 
in every kind of house-cleaning. {b) Simple system of 
household accounts. It consists of a day book for 
entering money received, items of expenditure, and 
balance in hand, in parallel columns, and a scheme of 



DOMESTIC SCIENCE. 123 

alphabetical headings under which expenditure is classi- 
fied. The system is practical and free from technicalities, 
(c) Only plain cooking is taught, " nothing beyond a 
Christmas cake or extra good pie." (d) Students are 
made acquainted with as much simple labour-saving 
machinery as possible. [e) The co-operation of the 
Hall of Residence is essential to the success of the 
course. Every student gains there a week's practical 
experience in housekeeping, {f) Students who shirk the 
prescribed house-cleaning duties make good their neglect 
during hours of leisure. 

The tuition fees for all regular Home Economics 
Courses are £t^ a term for Ontario students, and double 
that amount for all others admitted.* 

Qon eluding Observations. 

It will be noted that in general aim and character 
the courses of instruction in Household Science at 
Macdonald College and at Guelph are very similar. As 
far as we could judge, the courses are well suited to Can- 
adian conditions, and are such as to promote the standards 
of efficiency in home management. The whole problem, 
it seemed to us, is treated more seriously and thoroughly 
in Canada than in England. No doubt the relative 
simplicity of the Canadian social order facilitates treatment, 
for owing to that simplicity the same general type of 
domestic training answers the needs of the majority of 
women. But in England, although all kinds of domestic 
training may have the same basis, the wide differences in 
economic status and social habit imply the existence of 
very different kinds of domestic function among women ; 
and the courses of domestic training provided must 
recognise these differences and be influenced by them, '\1 
they are to commend themselves. If the reaction from a 
type of education for girls, which was originally devised 
in imitation of masculine requirements, is to produce a 
good effect, those Universities which include work of the 
kind within their mission must give far more attention 

* For further particulars as to the Department of Home Economics, see the 
Calendar of the Ontario Agricultural College for the current year. 



124 OTHER UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENTS. 

than hitherto to this question of domestic training. They 
must be prepared to put thought and energy into their 
schemes, and to provide a training which ministers to a 
definite and felt want in society. The mere multiphcation 
of sporadic courses in cookery, laundry, dress-making, and 
hygiene, is no substitute for systematic and intelligent train- 
ing. Courses in single subjects may answer a useful 
purpose at one end of the scale, just as the elaborate and 
highly scientific course in Home Science and Household 
Economics recently instituted at King's College, London, 
is believed to render most valuable service at the other 
end. But throughout the country there are a great many 
girls of good intelligence who, after leaving a secondary or 
high school, would probably welcome a training differently 
planned. For them the ideal "Home-makers" course has 
yet to be devised, although the fact that several insti- 
tutions are doing good work is not overlooked. The 
ideal course, it seems to us, would occupy one year ; it 
would be given in University surroundings ; it would 
treat the basic or practical subjects with thoroughness, 
but it would not attempt more than a few ; it would be 
inspired by a more liberal and intellectual spirit than is 
commonly found in courses of domestic training; by 
utilising the resources of the University or College, it 
would include Literature, Art, Music, or Science in the 
scheme of studies ; it would pay particular attention not 
merely to the so-called "practical" side of home manage- 
ment, but also to those aspects of equal importance which 
deal with principles of taste and with refinement ; and, in 
brief, it would carry forward and deepen the general 
education and culture of the student, while associating with 
it a training for the tasks of adult womanhood. It is 
obvious that no course of this kind could be given with 
success unless the teaching staff commanded, in a measure 
at present not usual, technical competence and cultivation 
of mind. The qualifications wanted in the teacher who 
directs such a course are not so much manual dexterity or 
a narrow expertness, as a strong and cultivated intelligence, 
a grasp of the best methods, and a wide social experience. 



DOMESTIC SCIENCE. 125 

Home-makers' courses, if given under University 
conditions, v^ould quickly vs^in popularity, and we believe 
that many girls would take advantage of them, even if 
they intended also to equip themselves for professional 
careers. 

University College, Reading, is well fitted to under- 
take a Home-makers' course of the kind described. Its 
buildings include small but well-designed premises for 
domestic training ; and these premises are situated in 
close proximity to the new St. Andrew's Hall of 
Residence for women. It might be arranged that in 
this Hall, following the precedents found at Guelph and 
at Macdonald College, the students should gain their 
practical experience in housekeeping. The fact that the 
College includes Faculties of Letters and Science, and 
Departments of Fine Art and Music, would facilitate the 
introduction of a suitable and varied element of general 
culture into the curriculum. A curriculum could 
without difficulty be organised so as to include a number 
of options and a core of essentials. It would probably 
be wise, in view of the restricted scope of the present 
premises available for domestic training, to limit strictly 
the number of students to be admitted to the course. 
Two other points of importance should be mentioned, 
(i) In the event of such a course being undertaken, an 
Advisory Committee of ladies should be constituted in 
connexion with it. This Committee should include 
representative Headmistresses, and other ladies able to 
speak with special authority on this branch of women's 
education. (2) The other point is one which has 
several times been emphasised in the pages of this 
Report. It is that no scheme of the kind indicated 
can be usefully attempted unless the teaching resources 
are adequate. As stated above, these resources must 
include both technical competence, social experience, 
and cultivation of mind. 



126 OTHER UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENTS. 

C. 

Note on Residence Systems for Students. 

It is well known that University College, Reading, 
possesses an ampler provision of residential halls for 
students than is found at any of the other new Universities 
and University Colleges. The existence of this provision, 
which has become a distinguishing feature in the life and 
character of the College, may be ascribed to several causes. 
In the first place, the College at Reading, as already 
observed (p. 92), is not situated at the heart of a great 
city or urban district, constituting an almost exclusive 
source for the supply of students. Large numbers of its 
students come from the counties around, from other parts 
of the kingdom, from the dominions beyond the sea, and 
from foreign countries. For such students, both men and 
women, suitable residential arrangements are indispensable, 
and the idea of a group of halls, situated at an easy 
distance from University College on the one hand and 
the open country on the other, is less difficult of 
accomplishment in Reading than in a great city with 
far-extended suburbs. In the second place, the College 
has consistently acted upon the principle that University 
education is the product mainly of two things : the right 
kind of teaching and the right kind of corporate association 
and corporate life. It was the latter aspect of the question 
which the late Lord Wantage had in mind when, speaking 
as President of the College in 1896, he said: "We have 
an object worthy of the highest consideration — it is to 
establish a College with the qualities and character of a 
University." " In endeavouring to carry out his views" 
said Lady Wantage at the opening of Wantage Hall in 
1908 "my object has been not only to provide a 
commodious residence for the hitherto scattered students, 
but by bringing them together under one roof to create 
a true corporate life, and to promote what may be called 
a university spirit." It may be said, briefly, that these 
ideas have inspired and determined residential policy at 
Reading. Lastly, the College has most fortunately been 



RESIDENCE SYSTEMS. 127 

enabled, while still young, to carry these ideas into effect. 
Wantage Hall, the gift and foundation of Lady Wantage, 
is probably the most admirably designed residential hall 
for University men outside Oxford and Cambridge. 
There is a second hall for men (St. Patrick's) which it is 
hoped, may before long be rebuilt on a more commodious 
scale. Of the two halls for women, one (St. George's) 
is a specially designed building erected some years ago, 
while the other (St. Andrew's) is about to move into new 
and larger premises, situated in delightful grounds. 
Altogether the four halls will provide by Easter, 191 1, 
accommodation for more than 200 students, the 
proportions of men and women students being approx- 
imately equal. All the halls are situated near to the College 
Recreation Ground. Further, a considerable body of 
students reside in private houses, controlled and supervised 
by the College. Two characteristics of the residential 
halls may be particularly noted. First, that the cost of 
living is cheaper and the character of the life on a simpler 
scale than at the ancient Universities ; the other that all 
teaching is given exclusively at University College. Care 
has been taken to guard against any risk of the 
development of the halls into minor and competitive 
teaching institutions. 

The residence systems for students in Canada and in 
the United States did not appear to us to present many 
features of importance which might profitably be incor- 
porated into policy at home. The general effect of our 
inquiries and inspections was to strengthen our belief in the 
soundness of the policy adopted at Reading, both in 
regard to its general aim, and in regard to its execution 
in detail. We were impressed by the opinion, which 
we encountered everywhere but particularly in the larger 
institutions, that the question of the residence of students 
and their corporate life outside hours of instruction 
is of grave and growing importance. The idea that 
a University need only carry on teaching and research, 
leaving its students to live as they please, is no longer 
held by practical men. Such an idea could not survive 



128 OTHER UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENTS. 

the admission of women students to the University as 
well as men, nor is it applicable to Universities which 
count their students not by hundreds but by thousands. 
Unless this side also of University education receives 
the care and attention which is its due, resultant evil 
must be the penalty of neglect. Upon this aspect of the 
question American testimony is decisive.* 

The Macdonald and Guelph Colleges are purely 
residential. The women's hall of residence at Guelph, 
known as Macdonald Hall, provides for i lo students, and 
is an admirable building. The system is one of study 
bedrooms with a common dining hall. The building 
includes a spacious gymnasium. At McGill University, 
we inspected the Royal Victoria College for women, 
which is both a hall of residence and a teaching 
institution. There is a small hall of residence for men, 
and more provision is contemplated. W^e inspected the 
men students' Union House, which has about 600 
subscribing members. The building is practically a club- 
house, and is well designed for its purpose. At Toronto, 
new university residences were opened in the session 
1908-9. Three buildings, forming three sides of a 
quadrangle, were erected, each able to receive 50 students, 
the accommodation being partly in single rooms, and 
partly in suites consisting of a sitting room and two 
bedrooms. We inspected several rooms and were 
favourably impressed by them. In each house there is 
also a common room. A member of the teaching staff 
resides in each house, but the principle of student self- 
government is developed as far as possible. Meals are 
not taken in the residence houses, but in a common dining 
hall. 

In the Universities of the United States, we came 
into contact with the dormitory system and the fraternity 
house system. Both systems represent an attempt to 
provide students with an alternative more comfortable 
than the frequently unsatisfactory boarding-houses and 

* Cp. " The Re-organization of our Colleges" by Clarence F, Birdseye, (New 
York, The Baker and Taylor Company). 



RESIDENCE SYSTEMS. 129 

lodgings. The aim has been to introduce into their 
residential experience at the University the element of 
home life and corporate association. The dormitory 
system represents the contribution of the university 
authorities to the solution of the problem of residence. 
Large buildings are erected in which students have their 
private rooms for study and sleeping, meals being taken 
in a University hall, in which several hundred men can 
dine simultaneously. This system prevails at Harvard 
and Yale (where there are no fraternity houses). President 
Lowell of Harvard informed us that more university 
dormitories were needed, and that Americans were 
increasingly disposed to recognise the merits of the 
English collegiate system, and to regret the haphazard 
residential arrangements which vast numbers of university 
men in America are obliged to accept. Yet the problem 
of building sufficient university dormitories is formidable, 
since "a modern dormitory to house 100 students costs 
from $100,000 to $200,000, or even more."* 

The fraternity houses not only illustrate the American 
passion for organisation and for ritual, but they serve as a 
reminder that, if Universities neglect the residential 
problem, the students themselves (in modern as in 
mediaeval Universities) may find solutions for it, which in 
their turn may produce difficulties as well as gains. The 
fraternities are a remarkable feature in American university 
life. A fraternity is a private fellowship or club, usually 
known by the names of two or three letters of the Greek 
alphabet, which may have branches or lodges in many 
Universities. Frequently they establish houses of 
residence for their members; such houses are numerous 
at Cornelbf' and Wisconsin, most of them being for men 
though some are for women. The fraternity buys or builds 
a house : the usual number of students living in one such 
house is about 30; and the management is exclusively in the 

* "The Re-organizatlon of our Colleges." Birdseyc. p. 98. 

f We were informed that at Cornell about 600 men live in fraternity houses, 
while the rest, constituting the great majority (2,500 — 3,000), live in boarding 

houses and rooms. 



130 OTHER UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENTS. 

hands of the students themselves. Some of these houses 
are costly undertakings, and may represent an expenditure 
of jTiOjOOO or /^i 2,000. The bulk of the capital is supplied 
by the old members, or alum?ii^ of the fraternity, who 
continue to take part in its affairs long after they have 
left the University. " The spread of the movement has 
been wonderful and inevitable. There are about 370 
Colleges and Universities which contain chapters of some 
fraternities, and in many of these institutions the houses 
of the fraternities are among the finest in the town. 
Millions of dollars have been thus invested."* 

We inspected two of the chief fraternity houses at 
Cornell University. The houses were admirably designed 
and more than comfortably furnished. They might be best 
described as luxurious club houses. It is easy to under- 
stand that the fraternity tie can become a very strong one, 
and that these institutions by reason of their attractiveness, 
their secret ritual, and their limited membership, are often 
characterized by an intense vitality. Nevertheless, though 
the fraternity system has both good points and warm 
defenders, it is not surprising that it should be the object 
of much criticism. The fraternity houses, it is often 
said, are the lounging places of cliques. Men who live 
in them are seldom strenuous either in athletics or in 
studies. They are too comfortable and too much concerned 
with the narrow circle of fraternity interests. Despite 
its best intentions, we are told, the fraternity system 
tends to withdraw men from the wider interests of the 
University, and even to make them antagonistic to its 
spirit and unity. It is by no means certain that the 
increasing strength of these organisations may not here- 
after prove a formidable embarrassment to the Universities 
which harbour them. Whether these defects and risks out- 
weigh the obvious attractions of the system from the point 
of view of comfort and of substituting some form of organ- 
ised corporate life for the casual associations of the lodging- 
house — often the sole alternative — we are not able to say. 
But the fraternity system deserves attention, if only because 

* '"The Reorganisation of our Colleges." Birdseye, pp. 99-100. 



RESIDENCE SYSTEMS. 131 

it shews that the corporate and residential welfare of 
students cannot be left to take care of itself without 
unforeseen and probably embarrassing consequences 
resulting. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DDD57flEE7T4 



